Small Towns for Tomorrow
Small Towns for Tomorrow – a new Policy Forum
AMT’s Big Lottery Fund grant has enabled the establishment of a new policy forum focussing specifically on the needs of small towns across England.
The forum’s objective is to develop and promote a greater understanding of issues facing market/small towns across the UK. It seeks to undertake open-minded dialogue on work of medium and long-term interest, with a view to contributing to research, sharing best practice, data and information, increasing knowledge and expanding income opportunities. It works with key agencies and opinion formers to input into the national, regional and sub-regional policy-making process as an informed, unbiased voice on market town issues. Equally it informs media professionals and education professionals in all matters relating to market towns. The forum will encourage discussion through the AMT website, and also commits to undertake seminars and policy programmes as necessary. Small Towns for Tomorrow held its first meeting on 19 June in Birmingham. The membership is currently as follows:
Professor Ray Pahl – Chair of the Policy Forum
Ray Pahl is a leading sociologist with an international reputation. He is the author of many books including Divisions of Labour, On Work, and After Success and has published numerous articles across a broad spectrum of sociological issues. Ray Pahl is Research Professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is also a Board Director for Action for Market Towns.
Dr Paul Courtney
Paul Courtney is a reader in Rural Economy and Society at the University of Gloucestershire, and Assistant Director of the Countryside and Community Research Institute. His research interests are concerned with socio-economic and spatial dimensions of rural activities, particularly in relation to rural community development, small towns, the historic environment and rural economic performance.
David Gluck
David is a senior consultant at ECOTEC, which is an international provider of research, consulting and management services. He has a particular interest in green infrastructure.
Justin Griggs
Justin is the Head of Policy and Development for the National Association of Local Councils (NALC). His main role is to represent and advocate the interests of local councils at national level on a wide range of policy and development issues.
Catherine Hammant
Catherine is a Chartered Surveyor with a background in commercial property. Since 2001 she has been a Project Co-ordinator for Stamford Vision. She has established really active working groups delivering their Vision and the private sector has had a major input both in time and financial contributions. She is the Chair of Action for Market Towns.
Trevor Hart
Trevor Hart is Visiting Research Fellow at Newcastle University. His work has been mainly in the field of policy evaluation, especially of national and regional initiatives: examples include EU Structural Fund Programmes in regions of England; national labour market initiatives; and developing policies, such as those for social enterprise. Previous experience includes strategic planning, local economic development – especially in rural areas – and EU policy, strategy and funding programmes. Recent academic activity has focused on rural communities, and especially the role of small rural towns as service centres, growth points and focal points in the quest for sustainable rural development.
Chris Kolek
Chris is a Senior Policy Advisor at the Commission for Rural Communities currently responsible for developing programmes that promote diverse, thriving and sustainable rural communities. He previously held posts within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Commission. He now has over 16 years experience in planning, managing and implementing a wide range of rural policy programmes – from social policy research projects to market town regeneration to agri-environment schemes.
Gordon Morris
Gordon Morris, an engineer by profession, trained and served with the Royal Navy until 1976, when he left to work in industry, initially as a sonar engineer, and eventually as a partner in a consultancy specialising in water conservation. After a spell lecturing in Further and Higher Education he joined the Rural Development Commission as a Business Adviser in 1993.
In 1999, he joined the Countryside Agency, where he worked on various aspects of rural regeneration, including the Market Towns Initiative and Beacon Towns Programme, both of which he helped to design and manage. He left the Countryside Agency in 2005, and now works as a freelance writer and researcher. He has a Post-graduate Diploma and an MSc in Rural Development from the University of Plymouth/Seale Hayne, and is a part-time PhD student at the University of Exeter, where he is investigating aspects of rural deprivation in England. He is a Board member of Action for Market Towns.
Professor John Shepherd
John Shepherd if Professor of Geography at Birkbeck College, University of London, and Director of Defra’s Rural Evidence Research Centre. He has undertaken a wealth of research including on land use change and the planning process for Government and on rural services, market towns, small settlements and landscape character. More recently he is developing a new classification for settlements between 1500 and 40,000 population size – the typology of small towns.
Giles Simon
Giles Simon is the Communications and Development Officer at Co-operatives UK. He is working to raise the profile of small and medium-sized co-operatives amongst policy-makers, business advisors, researchers and entrepreneurs and to help grow the co-operative economy.
Visit the Co-operatives UK website
Len Turner
Len Turner is Partnership Manager for the Mid Wiltshire Economic Partnership. He has lived and worked in west Wiltshire since 1989 and represents the Wiltshire Forum of Community Area Partnerships.
Documents related to the Policy Forum:
Background to the Policy Forum
The date of the next meeting is Thursday 16 September.
The Policy Forum is still in its fledgling stages, but will develop over the coming year. If you wish to find out more about how to get involved with the Forum, please contact AMT’s Policy Manager: Alison.eardley@towns.org.uk
Market towns have been hard hit by the recession, with unemployment overall rising by a third more than in the nation as a whole. Shop vacancies have increased and empty shops are getting harder to let.