Welcome to the first issue of West Midlands Regional Insight. This quarterly e-bulletin aims to provide news and information relevant to market towns development and regeneration in the region. It is part of a new package of guidance and support for members of the West Midland Market Towns Forum provided by a partnership of Ecotec, Action for Market Towns and Elite Event Solutions. Funding for this work is provided by Advantage West Midlands as well as from the Big Lottery Fund as part of Action for Market Towns new national ‘Towns Alive’ Programme .

I hope you find the mix of stories in this first issue useful. Some of them are specifically about developments in the West Midlands, such as the Better Welcome tourism programme and the Redundant Buildings Scheme. Others are selected items from other regions, such as the very useful car parking study commissioned by Yorkshire Forward.

I would like to receive your feedback on Regional Insight, together with any stories you would like to see included in the next issue. If you would like a colleague added to the mailing list, please drop me a line. My e-mail address is below.

John Pole
Communications Manager
Action for Market Towns

The next meeting of the West Midlands Market Town Forum is on 15 February in Bewdley and has the theme 'moving forwards to make effective delivery'.
A briefing from the successful Bewdley Development Trust and the experiences of town partnerships in Wychavon and Cleobury Mortimer, will be used to demonstrate different choices for individual towns. This will be complemented by a look at the Devon Towns Forum as an example of how town partnerships can come together to get their collective voice heard.
These open sessions will be followed by a choice of three workshops: environmental quality surveys; a more in-depth look at the future options for partnerships; and a briefing on post office closures and future opportunities. The day will round off with a town tour to learn more about what has been achieved by the local partnership.
To book a place at the Forum, contact Anne Buchanan on 01633 411732.
For a full agenda, go to weblink:

The setting for the February 15 meeting of the West Midlands Market Towns Forum is the ancient town of Bewdley. The Bewdley Development Trust has developed an excellent website, which is a guide to the town and its local organizations – including the development trust – and includes a series of virtual panoramic tours. This is a great place to learn about Bewdley – and also to gain inspiration for your own town’s website. Go to weblink:

Safe, well maintained and attractive public spaces, particularly in town centres, play a critical role in creating pride of place which, in turn, is essential to building community cohesion and successful communities. This is also key to promoting economic growth through raising standards, including those of the public realm, to ensure that market towns can maintain their competitiveness and economic viability. Monitoring the state of your local environment and identifying areas of improvement will help identify problem locations and how to assess the efficiency of cleansing operations.
At the Market Towns Forum on 15 February, ENCAMs (ENvironment CAMpaigns) will show how environmental quality surveys can highlight how your town is performing on a range of environmental quality issues including, litter, detritus, graffiti, fly-posting, condition of highway and street furniture, right down to the condition of bin stock! There will be the opportunity to discuss practical solutions to the challenges of improving the quality of the local environment.
You can download these two reports free of charge:
Does Local Environmental Quality Matter Report
Guide for how to improve your local environmental quality:
For more information about ENCAMs, contact: Richard Barron, tel: 01384 390607 e-mail:

The Better Welcome programme, aimed at promoting tourism in West Midlands market towns, entered its second phase in December 2007. Better Welcome is co-ordinated by amt-i, Action for Market Towns consultancy arm.
Action plan meetings in each town started taking place at the end of January and will continue until the end of February.
Through those meetings, each town will be informed of their results in the tourism surveys which took place last summer; they will base their action plan on the survey work carried out as well as raise an application for grant funding from Advantage West Midlands.
If you wish to receive more information on the programme, please contact Anne Buchanan on 01633 411732 or e-mail her at:

Connecting to Success, the new West Midlands Economic Strategy was launched on 10 December 2007. The document sets a vision for the region as ‘a global centre where people and business choose to connect’, and to achieve this vision, success, for the region, can only be achieved if we work together in partnership. Success will mean developing a vibrant business base, spread across our towns, cities and rural areas – providing opportunity that ensures all citizens in the region have the chance to participate in economic success. It will mean the West Midlands continuing to enhance its national and international reputation for the quality and diversity of its people and places – businesses and individuals will want to move here to participate in this renaissance. It will mean the West Midlands taking a leading role in the move towards a lower carbon economy – and setting standards that others will aspire to. We want partners from across the region to work together to achieve these aims.
The Economic Strategy is influenced by a range of interrelated factors, and to address these, the Strategy focuses on three main components of the economy – Business, Place and People. Market Towns are identified throughout the Strategy as having a vital role to play in developing the regions economy. The connections and networks between rural communities, market towns and urban centres are fundamental to attracting and retaining a diverse workforce, encouraging enterprise, provision of high quality, key services.
For more information go to these free downloads:
West Midlands Economic Strategy
Rural Dimensions of the Economic Strategy

A former Victorian textile mill in Leek, Staffordshire is being refurbished thanks to a grant from Advantage West Midlands' Redundant Building Grant scheme – and two electrical companies will be able to expand in the town, creating seven new jobs.
The companies had seriously considered moving away from Leek town centre to find suitable premises, but with the help of this grant they’ve been able to extend their workspace, bringing more of the old mill building back into productive use.
The RBG scheme is open to applications from around Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Solihull – apart from the larger towns – and applying for a grant is a quick process.
For more information about the Redundant Building Grant scheme contact James Hinton or Sarah Simpson (RBG Support Officer) on 01785 277706 or email rbgscheme@staffordshire.gov.uk
For more information about the Leek project, go to weblink:

Grassroots Grants, the new £130million funding programme is looking for third sector organisations to deliver the programme at a local level.
The fund will provide much-needed access to small grants and long-term funding for local community groups and organisations in England who will apply for funds from a local funding provider later this year. The Community Development Foundation is delivering the programme on behalf of the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office.
There will be a briefing meeting on 4 March for organisations in the West Midlands interested in becoming a local funder. To book a place ring 01223 400331.
The deadline for applications to become a local funder is 30 April 2008. Full details of the programme and of the type of local organisation - or consortium of local organisations - which could be eligible to become a local funder are available at weblink:

The Post Office is undertaking a massive network change programme. At a local level it is likely to mean closures of Post Offices which may cut service levels, particularly in smaller towns and villages.
However, before any Post Offices are closed, a local consultation has to take place on an area plan proposal.
So far, area plan proposals have not be published for the West Midlands, but consultation end dates have been announced. They are:
Birmingham, Coventry and Warwickshire – 24 June 2008
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands - 27 August 2008
Shropshire and Staffordshire - 1 April 2008
When published, area plan proposals are available for download at:
Post Office consultation
Market town partnerships and town councils are urged to keep this site under review and be ready to comment on proposals which affect their areas.

What can you do to avoid the worst effects on services if your local Post Office closes?
Ruralnet, with support from the Commission for Rural Communities, has set up a free Experts Online question and answer service which is designed to help rural communities work together as one in their transition towards the alternative ways that the service needs of local residents and businesses can be met in the light of decisions on Post Office closures.
The Experts Online service is free – but you need to register. For further information and to register, go to:

Car parking is a problem common to most market towns. This comprehensive car parking study commissioned by Yorkshire Forward takes an analytical view of car parking and how the needs of different users and constraints in provision can be addressed most effectively for the benefit of your town.
How do we make best use of car parking in different locations? Can we manage without expanding provision? This report analyses who the car park users are, the issues that are important to them and how to manage existing provision to maximise the usage of all spaces. It shows that active car parking management is a powerful tool to help achieve regeneration objectives and can be structured to suit locals as well as visitors.
For a copy of the full report, please go to weblink:

A new website has been launched for the Rural Regeneration Zone, which covers Herefordshire, the majority of Shropshire and part of Worcestershire.
The website details all the grants programmes funded in the region, such as Nexus Small Grants, which focus on improving access to services and facilities for rural communities, and the Redundant Building Grant Scheme, where derelict buildings are “recycled” for commercial use. The site also has details of the Zone's economic regeneration plan up to 2010, press releases and organisational information.
The new website is at:

A mobile learning centre is to be set up to help employers in rural areas boost the skills level of their workforce. It is part of a workplace skills scheme which will see 20 workplace learning centres set up across the West Midlands.
The learning centres will be managed by trade unions and will build on the Train to Gain programme run by the Trades Union Congress’s Unionlearn and the Learning and Skills Council, which promotes workforce development and provides access to training.
Advantage West Midlands is investing £458,000 in the scheme as part of a £1.85 million public and private sector funding package.
For more information, go to weblink:

Work has begun on a £1.5million Enterprise Centre in Leominster as part of a project to develop a strategic network of centres for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the Rural Regeneration Zone, which covers most of Herefordshire and Shropshire and part of Worcestershire. The Leominster centre will offer nine offices and 13 workshops and, when fully operational, will provide homes for up to 22 businesses, which in turn will create 100 jobs.
For more details, go to weblink:

Social Enterprise West Midlands has launched its new website. The site is intended to be a central source of information and resources for the social enterprise sector in the West Midlands. The site includes online member registration, a resource library and a member directory. Go to weblink:

What may our market towns of the future be like? A future scenarios study by Yorkshire Forward assesses the factors, such as climate change and changes in the agricultural industry, which will shape the future and promotes the idea that community involvement is critical to the sustainable development of market towns in the next 25 years.
To download a free copy of this report, please go to weblink:

Helping independent retailers prosper in our market towns is a major issue facing many market town partnerships.
One approach which is working in Haslemere, Kent is a credit card sized loyalty card which incorporates advanced microchip technology. The scheme was the winner of the 2006 National Market Town Awards and is currently being rolled out in a number of other towns.
Find out more about how a loyalty card scheme might help your town by going to weblink:

For a town partnership to have credibility its work needs to be evidence based and it needs to be able to measure performance over time.
A regional winner of the 2007 National Market Town Awards was the Welland Towns Benchmarking Project, which uses a range of performance indicators to capture useful data about your town in a simple step by step way. The system has been designed to be straightforward so that any town, even those with limited resources, can participate.
It will enable you to compare your town in a number of ways and a range of reports will enable you to see how you are performing, both compared to other towns and over time.
The Market Town Benchmarking system is now available as a set of web-based tools. For more information go to:

If you like 'regional insight', then take a look at the national e-newsletter 'insight' published monthly by Action for Market Towns and mailed exclusively to AMT members.

Click here for a sample issue

Useful contacts

West Midland Market Towns Forum forthcoming programmes

Tom Gill, Consultant, Ecotec tom.gill@ecotec.com

E-bulletin content and forthcoming web pages

John Pole, Communications Manager, Action for Market Towns. Tel 07795106567 john.pole@towns.org.uk

AMT membership queries or services

Anna McGowan, Membership Co-ordinator, Action for Market Towns. Tel 0845 6446202 anna.mcgowan@towns.org.uk

Registration for events and changes to contact details

Anne Buchanan, Director, elite event solutions. Tel 01633 411732 anne@eesolutions.co.uk