Member Article

Study on unique market towns

A study on what makes market towns unique has begun on three North East towns. Alnwick in Northumberland, Guisborough in Teesside, and Barnard Castle in County Durham will be surveyed by One NorthEast to identify where investment is needed to ensure they remain distinctive as well as prosperous.

Kirsten Francis, One NorthEast’s Market Towns and Services Specialist Advisor said: “Market towns play a key role in the overall economy of the region. If we can understand better what makes them distinctive, we can steer investment accordingly to make their economic contribution even greater.

“Over the past six months we have been working with each town partnership to assess the physical layout of the town centre, its range of shops, customer care, availability of local produce, local markets and views from the business community. In doing so we hope to get a good picture of what elements are needed to create a successful and sustainable retail offer. “There is a fine line between creating ‘Clone Towns’ or ‘Ghost Towns’ and we hope that this research will help us to tread that line.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .