Our Market Town Policy Advocates are AMT members who have expressed an interest in becoming more involved in our policy work, and who have proven knowledge and expertise that they can bring to the table.

The Policy Advocates have the opportunity to get involved in a variety of interesting work, ranging from inputting into consultations and developing policy statements.

If you have an interest in playing a greater role in helping our small towns to become more successful, then please contact us to find out more about becoming a Market Town Policy Advocate.

Our Policy Advocates have a wide range of experience on issues affecting small towns at the local level.  If you need assistance or support on something, please contact Alison.Eardley@towns.org.uk who can identify which Policy Advocate may be able to provide guidance.

Current Advocates:

Barnard Castle Vision – Open to change, eager to experiment, respectful of the past, ambitious for the future

Barnard Castle, in Teesdale, is a market town famous for its elegant Georgian and Victorian architecture, medieval castle, riverside walks, specialist shopping and antiques area.  The Vision is a 20-year plan for the regeneration and development of Barnard Castle market town.   It provides a means of accessing long term funding to transform the town into a leading rural service centre, a heritage destination of regional significance, a hotbed of entrepreneurialism and a preferred location for high value-added manufacturing and knowledge-based business investment. The Vision will benefit residents, entrepreneurs, workers, investors and visitors to Barnard Castle.  Area of particular policy interest include Economic Development, Community Led Planning, Rural Services, and broadband availability/ usage.

For more information on the vision, please see: http://www.barnardcastlevision.co.uk/.  For more information generally about Banard’s Castle, please visit: http://www.teesdalediscovery.com/

John Everitt – Harborough District Council

Harborough District Council has a large majority of Conservative Councillors and fills all the Executive roles.  John’s portfolio was recently created as a response to the recession and is called Local Business and Enterprise. The portfolio plan is currently being revised, and I will be able to send you a copy if that is helpful. I was previously the portfolio holder for Planning.

John is most active in fostering local business activity, in all sectors, including tourism.   He brings to this his previous working life, where he built up my own business from nothing (a software housing specialising in financial settlement systems) and in the design of websites. He says he is more than usually IT literate for his age (71), and one of his concerns is its best use in start-up businesses, and broadband connection in remote rural areas to support home working and internet-based small businesses run from home.

Visit Harborough website at:  www.harborough.gov.uk.

Vince Garvin – Chairman, I Love LB (Leighton Buzzard)

Vince was born in North London in March 1958, part of a very strong community with a market as its central hub. He worked in Chapel Market, Islington and the world famous ‘Petticoat Lane’ as a youngster and a teenager.

He started his first business (Carpentry & Joinery) at age 18 and also bought his first derelict property at this time which he took 3 years to renovate before selling it and doubling his money. He has a keen interest in property, especially ‘older’ period properties and has an eye for detail which has helped him become a very successful property developer based on his sense of ‘what’s right’ and his traditional values.

Alongside his property ventures Vince has also been heavily involved in business development of all kinds but his own area of expertise lies in developing businesses through sales, believing that all business ‘deals’ stem from the sale and his own philosophy that “without the sale, nothing else happens”.

Vince now donates a lot of his spare, and business time, to helping all kinds of local volunteer groups including ‘Kids Out’ a children’s charity, The Police Community Support Group (helping policy decisions), I Love LB, a local trade association of which Vince is current Chairman, The local ‘Go Cycle’ group plus various other group events as and when invited to do so.

Vince is a highly experienced businessman with a level of commitment, energy and drive rarely found in people today and currently owns and runs a business development company dedicated to the core values of ‘Go Local First’ and getting local people to ‘Shop Locally First’.

Vince is also a member of the International Speakers Federation and can regularly be found at business venues around the country giving his own inimitable style of direction on ‘cutting it to the bone’ and ‘you can, if you really want to’. Both topics are based on Vince’s strong belief that you can do (almost) anything you want to, if you have the right attitude.

Helen Harris – Better Places Team Leader, Leicestershire County Council
Profile to follow…

Helen Pakpahan – Economic Development Officer, High Peak Borough Council

Helen has worked in regeneration since the early 1990s both in an urban and rural context. With a background in training,  Helen worked in Moss Side on SRB 1 and European funded regeneration projects in the 1990s, before moving onto advising the voluntary sector in the North West on European funding  - increasing the amount of funding the sector accessed from £2m to £12m in her first year. She also wrote the well respected ‘beginners guide to European funding for voluntary and community groups’ and represented the sector at a regional level. Helen worked for the Peak District National Park Authority running their Millennium Scheme for three years before becoming the Market Towns Officer for Chapel-en-le-Frith in 2002. Since the MTI funding ceased, she has been employed directly by High Peak Borough Council as an Economic Development Officer, a role which varies from supporting the regeneration of five market towns in the High Peak (Glossop, New Mills, Whaley Bridge, Chapel-en-le-Frith and Buxton), to supporting business growth and retention, as well as working on a range of small and strategic projects, including the regeneration of Pavilion Gardens, Buxton.  Helen has been part of the team that has won five regional Action for Market Town Awards since 2003.

Helen also undertakes a policy role for High Peak in relation to economic development, which not only has resulted in rural funding under the leader scheme being expanded to cover smaller rural market towns in her area, but also responds directly to government think tank on impact on the recession on rural communities.

As a resident of a small market town herself, Helen is keen that the market towns are not stereotyped. “Some of our towns like Buxton attract literally millions of visitors each year and others act primarily as a service centre for a large rural hinterland, but many of our towns also have a strong manufacturing and service base with growing numbers of small businesses across all sectors. It is therefore vital that the diversity of rural towns is understood by policy makers so that the challenges they face can be addressed.”

Visit High Peak Borough Council at: www.highpeak.gov.uk.  Find out more about High Peak as a place to visit at: www.visitpeakdistrict.com

Keith Smith – Chairman, Highworth Community Partnership Group

‘When I am abroad and want to recall a typically English town, I think of Highworth….’
John Betjeman (1960)

Having retired from a very demanding professional career, I was able to find the time to take up the cudgels on behalf of Highworth, a small but historic market town. In 2006 a local parish councillor threw out a challenge to the local community to write a 20 year plan for the town. I joined the group with great enthusiasm, only to find myself as chair. With a mere £5000 in the kitty a group of a dozen or so stalwarts set about the task.

After six months we managed to get a £20k grant from the Market and Coastal Towns initiative and by June 2008 we completed what is a very impressive plan.

On the way, I became more interested in the politics of small communities and how they are poorly represented and to a larger extent neglected by local authorities and central government. This is particularly true of Highworth, which is the sole market town in a very urban unitary authority. I am particularly interested in the new research on rural communities by Professor John Shepherd, which I think will be a vital tool in the armoury of market towns to persuade our political masters of the need for a change of approach.

Laurence Young – Manager, Faversham Enterprise Partnership

Laurence is particularly interested in developing the independent economic and community viability of market towns and smaller communities. He believes market town communities offer a model of sustainable and high-quality lifestyle for the future and that decision-making for market towns sits best with their own town and parish councils. The decision-making and service delivery pendulum needs to radically swing back into the local arena.

He works in Kent as manager of the Faversham Enterprise Partnership, a locally-based not-for-profit company undertaking research and project delivery for the economic benefit of the Faversham area. Laurence previously worked in local government in town centre management and localism development. Before moving to the public sector he worked in the City in the London insurance market.

To find out more about becoming an Advocate, contact Alison.Eardley@towns.org.uk