More help is on the way for the region's market towns to help them build towards more prosperous futures.

Nearly £3m is to be pumped into a wide variety of projects over the next ten years by the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward.

Executive director Heather Hancock announced the programme of spending yesterday at a presentation to key partners during the Great Yorkshire Show.

Following the agency's pioneering Market Towns Initiative and Urban Renaissance Panel, a total of £2.8m is to be invested in up to 40 small towns across the region over the next decade.

Known as the Market Town Renaissance Initiative, it will involve the appointment of an international panel of experts.

They, in turn, will work with local communities to develop 25-year visions for towns with populations of between 5,000 and 20,000, in the hope of making them more attractive places to live, work and invest in.

Action plans will be developed to identify niche markets for each town, its role as a service centre and its connections with surrounding rural areas, around which future investment can be planned.

"We want markets towns to flourish alongside bigger settlements, and in support of the network of villages that depend upon them," said Ms Hancock.

"The first critical step is to agree the vision for the town and that's what the Market Town Renaissance programme is all about - putting in place the skills and support to enable those communities to take a long, hard look at themselves and their future, and plans to achieve their aspirations."

As Yorkshire Forward's response to the Government's rural and urban White Paper, 12 of the area's market towns have so far benefited from initial investment of more than £4m during the past two years.

Since last October, experts in architecture and urban design have been working with six town "teams" to developing long-term visions for their futures. Another six "renaissance towns" are now coming off the starting blocks