We are coming to the end of a funding period for Yorkshire Forward and the support for market town partnerships will be changing. Most of the Yorkshire Forward funding will be coming through the local authorities through their Geographic Programmes which are currently under discussion. The new funding regime is due to start in April 2009. This will include significant investment in market towns overall, including a refocused Renaissance Market Towns Programme, investment in some rural capital (market town) business space provision, and in selected pilot low carbon capitals. It is envisaged that the later will involve the testing of new approaches and draw on international experience.

There will also be a £30 million investment in tourism (the visitor economy) from Yorkshire Forward, directed through the Yorkshire Tourist Board, with sub regional tourism partnership structures taking responsibility for sub-regional investment initiatives. The Visitor Economy Strategy target is to grow value of the visitor economy by 5% annually until 2013. For more information on tourism investment plans click here.

The programme Modernising Rural Delivery (MRD) is also coming to an end at the end of March 09. A new development is that Yorkshire Forward will now replace it with a smaller Access to Opportunities programme, designed to complement other Yorkshire Forward funded rural initiatives. For more information on the new Access to Opportunities programme click here.

Even before the recession, Yorkshire Forward itself was told it would be required to demonstrate economic impact more strongly. Clearly creating jobs will be a key investment target in most programmes going forward.

Integreat Yorkshire are planning how they will continue to enable community partnerships to share information across the region, whether they have been under the Renaissance Market Town programme or not.

Action for Market Towns will continue to provide services to members (contact anna.mcgowan@towns.org.uk for membership information or see the shortly to be very much upgraded web-site www.towns.org.uk. ). Membership is typically between £100 and £200 annually per organisation and provides a range of information and advice services as well as an attractive public liability insurance package offer.

North Yorkshire Market Towns should have their own good practice sharing programme through a partnership between North Yorkshire County Council and Action for Market Towns’ Towns Alive Programme.

Camilla Govan
Regional Network Co-ordinator

The next in our successful series of one-day study tours will be in the East Riding market town of Pocklington on February 26.

The Study Tour will allow you to:

- Review your town’s economy with support from Action for Market Towns;
- Join a community street audit of Pocklington to learn how to do it in your town centre;
- Learn how Pocklington Arts, a town council-owned and community-run arts centre approaches marketing – marketing on a shoe string;
- And catch up with East Riding Market Towns initiatives in the Open House Session and afterwards over refreshments.

Click here for the full programme. Click here for the booking form.

This is an open event. Pass this on to others who may be interested.

For background information on Pocklington, go to:

The Yorkshire market town of Settle is setting the pace in generating renewable energy through a social enterprise.

Settle Hydro was established as an ‘Industrial and Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community’ with the specific purpose of owning the Settle Weir Hydro Electric Scheme. The Society will generate revenue by selling ‘green’ hydro-electricity.

Any surplus revenue will be used by the Society to benefit the local community through its twin aims of regenerating the local economy and promoting the environmental sustainability of Settle District.

The imaginative scheme had a great Christmas boost when it reached its target of raising £100,000 capital through a public share issue.

To find out more about the scheme, click here for the project website.

The scheme has attracted much media comment. Click here to listen to the BBC Radio 4 Open Country report.

Click here to read a Guardian report on the scheme.

What drives your town economy? Is there enough economic activity in the centre of town to support a strong retail sector? Do you need to redirect the economy to enable it to grown stronger or are there other initiatives you could take that would support the sustainability of your town?

Action for Market Towns has a new Policy into Practice paper on Prosperous Places, providing guidance on:

- How to understand and analyse your town economy
- How to plan what action might be needed and
- What can be done, drawing on a wide range of initiatives and approaches from around the UK.

Click on the link below to download the pre-press version of Prosperous Places. Note that some of the links within the paper will be only accessible for members of Action for Market Towns when the new web site is launched in February.

Not all young people want to go to university. Do those in your town who would like to develop their practical skills for work purposes know what the opportunities are in artisan trades?

Encouraging people working in these businesses to share their skills and experience with young people is an approach that has been successfully developed in Ludlow through the initiative of a group of private business individuals, now operating as ‘Skillbuilders’.

In October, Yorkshire Forward brought them to Knaresborough to explain their approach.
For more information on the Skillbuilders Programme, go to:

The winner of the prestigious 2008 National Market Town Awards is not a chocolate-box-pretty town, but two former pit villages near Sheffield. Kiveton Park & Wales scooped the award – beating seven other regional finalists – for an innovative project which uses e-bay to raise funds for community projects. They were named winners at the Action for Market Towns National Convention in Skipton on 1&2 October.

Kivo-Ebiz, a social enterprise established by the Kiveton Park & Wales Community Development Trust,sells items on e-bay on behalf of local people, with 20 per cent of the proceeds going to community projects. The enterprise is run entirely by volunteers. They also provide training in internet trading – increasing local skills and volunteer numbers.

Kiveton Park & Wales are two adjacent villages about ten miles South East of Sheffield. Until the mid 1990s the area had a large coal industry, but with the closure of the colliery came high unemployment and a general loss of community spirit. The Community Development Trust was set up with headquarters in the Old Colliery Offices to undertake a range of community projects. The real strength of the trust is the strong band of dedicated volunteers and Kivo-Ebiz is their latest project.

Pictured receiving the National Market Town Awards plaque from Jon Arnold (right), Northern Editor of The Press Association, and Catherine Hammant (second right), Chairman of Action for Market Towns, are Kivo-Ebiz volunteers Stephanie Hryschko (left) and Alan Rowles.

For details of all the regional winning projects, go to:

Many businesses are created in recessions. Do you know anyone thinking about starting up a new venture? Businesslink have a new mentoring programme for Social Enterprises and are looking for enterprises to support (click here for more information) , and Venturefest on 11 February in York is a lively free event for those starting out or developing their own business (click here to link to the Venturefest website.)

Yorkshire Forward have recently published their Rural Business Space Study documenting research on the demand for managed workspace in market towns across Yorkshire and Humber.

This report indicates surprisingly high levels of potential for increased quality space in many towns.

The report also evaluates various approaches to delivery, including the potential for private sector developer involvement.

Click here for the full report.

Two training sessions are being planned for March:
Understanding funding applications – how to produce effective applications
Evidence gathering and an introduction to community planning

Details will be e-mailed nearer the time.

Following a review of the Awards for All England programme, changes are to be made to the small grants scheme’s existing format when it comes to an end in March 2009.

Currently Awards for All England is a joint Lottery grants programme supported by Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England.

From 1 April 2009 each of the lottery distributors supporting the scheme will have their own small grants programmes up and running. Applications can still be made under the current arrangements until 31 March 2009.

The change will mean that each distributor can better address the needs of their applicants and the themes they support. Overall, across all the distributors, it is anticipated that new money available for small grants in 2009-10 will be comparable to money that was available to community groups through Awards for All in 2008-2009.

To ensure this change will be as seamless as possible, the distributors will each run their own small grants programme as follows:

• Big Lottery Fund will launch a new small grants programme on 1 April 2009 awarding grants of £300 to £10,000 to local communities in 2009-2010.

• Sport England will provide small grants for sports ranging from £300 - £10,000 from 1 April 2009.

• Arts Council England will provide small grants through their existing ‘Grants for the arts’ programme, supporting awards between £1,000 and £100,000.

• Heritage Lottery Fund small grants will be provided through the existing 'Your Heritage' (£3,000 to £50,000) and 'Young Roots (£3,000 to £25,000) schemes.

For more information, go to the Awards for All website at:

SIX partnerships are to receive a share of over £16 million over the next six years to support rural economic development in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

The successful groups are: the South Pennines LEADER Group; Yorkshire Dales LEADER Group; North York Moors, Coast and Hills LEADER Group; East Peak Innovation Partnership; Coast, Wolds, Wetlands and Waterways group; and the Northern Lincolnshire Rural Local Action Group.

The LEADER partnerships, known as Local Action Groups, have produced Local Development Strategies to develop a range of projects that will improve the quality of life and economic prosperity of local communities.

For more information, go to weblink:

A Big Lottery Fund project from our region proved a hit with the public when it recently scooped a National Lottery Award.

Nell Bank Outdoor Education Centre in Ilkley was voted Best Environment project. It was one of seven projects that received awards on the BBC’s Saturday night award show.

For more information and details of the Big Lottery Yorkshire and Humber team, go to weblink:

Festivals are a means of promotion and bringing people in to a town. Sometimes they can even help develop a brand identify for a town, which can support a wide range of local businesses, whether related to the festival theme or providing the visitor services, such as accommodation. Examples of these include Ludlow’s food festival and Hay on Wye’s book festival. However, festivals can also be important community events bringing people together to celebrate and enjoy and helping promote cultural and social linkages.

What makes a good festival and what can be learnt from the experience of others? Wendy Clews of Create Arts Development Ltd was a key contributor at Yorkshire Forward’s recent Festivals Seminar.

The summary notes of the do’s and don’t from the event and what you can expect to achieve are in the weblink below. Within the notes are links to good practice experience and guidance from elsewhere.

Are the arts a luxury appreciated mostly by those with more funds, albeit one that can bring income into an area? I have never seen the value of investment in the arts so clearly as in two stories I heard about recently at a Carnegie Trust event in Tipperary, writes Camilla Govan. Are you a sceptic? Click here to read more:

Many towns and partnerships in Yorkshire and Humber have developed websites which contain useful information on partnership structures and projects.

If you would like your website to be a featured link here, e-mail camilla.govan@towns.org.uk

Click on the link below to go to the town/partnership website:
Masham
Marsden and Slaithwaite
Howdenshire
Withernsea
Driffield
Hornsea Town Council
Hornsea
Beverley
Castleford Town Centre Partnership
Brigg Town Council
Tadcaster Town Council
DREAM (Disability, Recreation, Education and Advisory Meetings) for people with disability in the Nw Leeds, Ilkley and surrounding areas
Renaissance Knaresborough
Yore Vision
Upper Calder Valley Renaissance
Todmorden Town Team
A project to make the council offices in Hebden Bridge into a community based centre
The Elmet Trust, an organisation dedicated to promoting Ted Hughes and the village he was born in and lived in, Mytholomroyd

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

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Click below to access back issues of Yorkshire and Humber Regional Insight

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