AMT Public

We have brought together a selection of case studies which represent good practice in market towns on the theme of Prosperous Places. Tasters are below – AMT Members can view the full Prosperous Places case studies.

AMT Members have access to nearly 200 case studies in our Case Studies Database. Find out more about joining AMT.

The Forum Cinema
The Forum Cinema, Hexham is a profit-making commercial cinema in the centre of the market town. What makes it unusual is that it is owned and operated by the Hexham Community Partnership and the profits contribute to the core costs of the partnership, which aims to act as a focus for the regeneration of Hexham for the benefit of its community.

The Welland Benchmarking Project
This project involved teams of volunteers in 14 towns working together to develop a benchmarking project to identify how each town was performing against 12 key performance indicators (KPIs).

Haslemere Rewards retail loyalty card
Haslemere Rewards is a loyalty card scheme supporting and promoting Haslemere’s and its villages’ unique mix of small independent businesses.

Skillbuilders Artisan Training Support
Skillbuilders is an innovative artisan skill promotion programme.

Caterham’s shop local campaign
Starting a Local Shopping and Trading Campaign. An initiative aimed at providing a range of measures to support the retailers of Caterham.

Stamford Gateway
Stamford Gateway is a project that has renovated two town centre squares to the highest quality as ‘Gateways’ to the town. The town partnership took the innovative step of running a national design competition to create sympathetic spaces with locally inspired artworks reflecting Stamford’s image as a traditional, historic market town.

Impact of an edge-of-town Tesco store
A study of the impact on town centre trade of locating a Tesco store on the edge of Beverley.

Inward Investment in Howden – a case study of good strategy
The Press Association relocated a large part of their operations to the market town of Howden. A £5 million state of the art complex houses some 500 staff members. Excellent communications and strategy between the Press Association and East Riding of Yorkshire Council have ensured that the inward investment maintained the vitality and viability of the town.

Car parking charges in Sleaford
A project to examine the effect of parking charges on town centre trade.

Wayland House – building the business
After the refurbishment of an old Police Station and its transformation into Wayland House, the staff and trustees spent the following year ‘building the business’, seeking ways to attract tenants, clients and visitors, and new funding streams to support the community.

Cambridge Area Differentiated Branding and Promotion
The Greater Cambridge Partnership is supporting the growth of the already strong high technology cluster that exists in and around Cambridge. Under the banner of the Cambridge brand, it is also identifying local specialisms, including encouraging the development of high value manufacturing campuses prototyping designs in the market towns of Haverhill, Huntingdon and St Neots.

Stourport Canal Basin Regeneration
British Waterways HLF Restoration Project of Stourport Canal basins and Stourport Forwards MTI programme are working in partnership in order to enhance the local infrastructure and environment and provide a townscape and canalside that may be enjoyed by locals and visitors alike.

Richmond Heritage Partnership Scheme
Redundant empty spaces, particularly ‘over the shop’ premises, are a common problem in market towns. Richmondshire Swale Valley Community Initiative (RSVCI) identified refurbished 20 redundant properties against a strong latent demand for office and work/live space.

Revitalising Chorley Markets
In many market towns, the market is declining. But the experience of Chorley shows how traders and the local council working in partnership can revitalize a local market.

Buy Local
‘Buy Local’ – promoting locally made products in the Warminster community area.

Snow in Hythe at Christmas
The run-up to Christmas ought to mean business is booming for shopkeepers, but in Hythe they found that footfall in the town on Saturdays in December had fallen dramatically. The local partnership came up with the idea of using snow machines to create a ‘blizzard’ on every Saturday afternoon in December.

The County Square Environmental Enhancement Scheme, Ulverston
The County Square Environmental Enhancement Scheme is a magnificent new town square built using natural local stone by local contractors. It is home to the life-size bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy unveiled by Ken Dodd on 19 April 2009 and which is now a major tourist attraction for Ulverston.

Case Studies Database

See more examples of good practice in our Case Studies Database. This is an AMT Members only resource. Find out more about joining AMT.