Uppingham has a population of around 3,800 and, as well as Uppingham First, also has an elected town council. Click here to view a video, ‘Discover Uppingham’

Uppingham has been in the news this month for the launch of an innovative project to provide high-speed broadband for the town by wireless. The pilot stage, completed in March 2010, provided broadband access to 135 houses.

The project is being undertaken by local company Rutland Telecom, which is specializing in providing fast broadband to rural areas using a system called ‘rural loop unbundling’. Click here for full details of the project.

Action for Market Towns membership has been useful for Uppingham Forward. An AMT Towns-4-Towns Exchange Grant was used to part fund the exchange of experience and technical knowledge with Swindon BC. (Swindon was the first town in the UK to provide free wireless internet access to all of its residents). Towns-4-Towns grants are designed to enable towns which have implemented projects to share their experience and, equally, for towns who are considering particular projects to visit and learn from towns which have already undertaken similar work. For more details, go to: http://towns.org.uk/good-practice/towns-4-towns-exchange-fund/

A major task for Uppingham First was a public consultation leading to the publication of  ‘Uppingham 2025 – A Community Development Plan’. This makes proposals on the future shape, character and size of Uppingham, its future image for promotional/tourism purposes, as well as proposals of particular relevance to local residents, visitors and those who work or own a business in the town. Click here to view a copy of the community plan.

Uppingham First company secretary, Ron Simpson, finds the AMT website particularly useful.  “As Uppingham is not the principal town in Rutland, the AMT website is invaluable and  very useful for finding out what is happening in other market towns around the country through its news,” he said.

Ron has found the town benchmarking project carried out by the Welland market towns very useful from a statistical point of view, and Uppingham First has been benchmarking itself to some degree and using case studies  on the website to find out about new ideas.  For more details of the Welland benchmarking project, and how amt-i can provide research and consultancy support, go to: http://www.townbenchmarking.org.uk/amti.aspx

Uppingham First uses the AMT member benefit of discounted public liability insurance with Zurich – Insight  - which Ron says is at a good comparative rate and is used to cover approximately six major events a year, ranging from  Late Night Shopping, Classic Cars  to Festivals. Check out the insurance package at: http://towns.org.uk/2008/12/01/insurance-for-local-groups/

For more information about Uppingham. Check out these weblinks:

Town Council http://www.uppinghamtowncouncil.co.uk/

Uppingham First http://www.uppinghamfirst.co.uk/

Rutland Telecom http://www.relay-rutlandtelecom.co.uk/

But Incredible Edible is just one of many projects in this busy town. The AMT member is Todmorden Town Council (http://www.todmordencouncil.org.uk ), which has achieved recognition under the Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme. This is designed to provide benchmark minimum standards for parish and town councils and promote enhanced relationships between local councils, principal authorities and community and voluntary sector organisations.

Todmorden Pride (http://www.todmordenpride.org.uk ), established in January 1998, is the local community partnership which brings together a range of representatives drawn from all sectors of the community of Todmorden.

The objectives of the partnership are to forge a sustainable future for Todmorden as a community, exploiting its considerable architectural heritage and environmental advantages.  To date the Partnership has defined a forward strategy for Todmorden and assisted in the development of several areas of the town.

Todmorden is one of five towns in the Upper Calder Valley which is part of the UpperCalder Valley Renaissance initiative – the first project anywhere in the UK to tackle the challenging and complex job of transforming an entire valley (http://www.ucvr.org.uk).  This 14 mile section of the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire was earmarked by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, as an area ripe for regeneration on all levels.

Exciting plans for the redevelopment of Todmorden Town Centre are gathering pace. The Council, Yorkshire Forward and the Town Centre Renaissance Project Board have been working together to progress plans for the area. One step is the purchase of the former Rose Street Health Centre, which will be demolished and replaced with a high quality temporary landscaping scheme. This will ensure the town centre retains its aesthetic appeal for residents and visitors alike.

There are also plans for the creation of a new mixed use centre in the heart of the town, with retail units a café, and small business units as part of a regional initiative to identify a number of sites for the location of new business workspace facilities.

Totally Locally Todmorden is part of a Calderdale-wide campaign to raise awareness of the great local shops in the area and how shopping locally can support local jobs (http://www.totally-locally.co.uk ). Totally Locally is not about never shopping in a supermarket, online or in a city – but it is about taking a fresh look at what is available on the doorstep and investing in those businesses and the local town.

Todmorden is now officially a Fairtrade Town, an award given by the Fairtrade Foundation to towns across the UK who are helping to promote Fairtrade within their own communities. This award was presented to Todmorden in February 2010 and Todmorden Fairtrade Group wish to thank the Town Council, businesses, schools, churches, community and voluntary groups – everyone has helped to achieve this award and together we are making a real difference to real people!

Fairtrade Todmorden has its own website (http://www.fairtradetodmorden.btik.com ) with a local listings page where you can find where Fairtrade products are used and sold, check out events planned in the dates for your diary section and take a look at what the group have been doing in the campaign update section.

The website http://www.todmorden.org has many links to other websites about Todmorden, while  a history of the town and further links at at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todmorden