Hard work begins

The announcement of the second wave of towns to benefit from the market towns initiative is further evidence that government and its agencies recognise the importance of thriving market towns to the rural economy.

The money is not "new", as it was announced along with the other measures contained in the Rural White Paper last year, but the continuing commitment to the principle of market town regeneration is nevertheless welcome.

For the successful towns, the hard work now begins. The money comes with lots of strings attached, not least that the money is spent wisely and that the effect of each local initiative is properly evaluated. The preparatory work on justifying why certain projects should be funded will need to be extensive and require skills many communities may struggle to find within themselves.

Crucial to the success of each initiative will be the involvement of local people. The example of the Main Street small town regeneration programme in the United States is that the process works best when a handful of committed and skilled people put their heart and soul into improving their community. Initiatives tend to run out of steam when promoted by local government simply because residents tend to dismiss the effort as just another council scheme.

Small market towns have a inclination to let things happen rather than making their own decisions. Partly this is due to local government shake-ups which have tended to take power away from them but it is also due to a depressing brand of fatalism. Nothing will be done because nothing can be done, best summarises that view.

Now the towns who have "won" in this round have a chance to make a difference to their communities if they really want to. That means individuals getting out to meetings, making their voices heard and not letting the councillors and chambers of trade dominate the process. People also have to be willing to compromise. Not all interests can be served at once. Again the example of the United States demonstrates the importance of identifying critical areas to be improved and dealing with those first. People may have their pet projects but they also need to understand the wider goals.

For the towns who were not successful, there will be other opportunities to attract funding - notably the Single Regeneration Budget cash which is also available for market town regeneration projects.

They can, of course, help themselves by forming the partnerships necessary to start the regeneration process. They can carry out the so-called "health checks" on their communities and begin identifying the problems which need to be addressed. Among the measures announced by the government last year was the creation of a web-based "toolkit" - a fancy name for a series of practival steps towns can use to help that process get started.

One thing is becoming very clear. Market towns do now have ways to tackle the problems they may face. Some may get more help than others but there is certainly less reason for whingeing about their plight than before. Help is available and the future is very much in their hands.