MOVES to revitalise Richmond town centre were praised by the Yorkshire and Humber Euro MP when he visited today.

Timothy Kirkhope spent the morning touring the town and meeting retailers and leading figures behind the planned revival.

He was the guest of town centre manager Colin Grant and members of the Richmond Town Centre Forum Company, which commissioned a study into the economic state of the shopping centre and how it can be boosted.

Conservative Mr Kirkhope also met Peter Warne, town centre company chairman, to discuss how the proposals would benefit Richmond.

Speaking as a national survey revealed that Richmond was the eighth best place to live in Britain, Mr Kirkhope said: "Everybody talks about Richmond in very warm terms but that has to be translated into enterprise and people actually supporting the town.

"The town centre forum's proposals will ensure people are aware of where Richmond is, what Richmond is and why people should be in Richmond."

The town shared the problems of other small market towns and the involvement of outside organisations and funding was important to its revival.

Mr Kirkhope wanted to see simplification of the funding application process to make it easier to apply for grants.

"Applying for funding is much easier in other countries than in the UK," he said. "There are an awful lot of hoops that have to be gone through for grants in this country."

He praised the town centre forum company and others involved in trying to revitalise the local economy.

"Something positive is happening in Richmond," he said. "People are actually going ahead and doing something, helping themselves, and that deserves and gets a response from those bodies that can help financially."

Mr Grant said marketing consultants were about to be recruited to target retail businesses with a view to attracting new shops to the town.