Memorandum from Kington Town Council (WM
11)
THE EFFECTS OF PRESENT ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL
SITUATION ON A RURAL MARKET TOWN ON THE WELSH BORDER
1. Kington is situated in the far West of
Herefordshire, two miles from the border with Wales and is a market
town of 2,000 people with a hinterland of small rural communities
on both sides of the border who focus on it for shopping, leisure,
culture, health and education, etc.
2. Like all other market towns it has been
hit hard by the present economic downturn and has empty shops
along its diminishing High Street. The small industrial estate
has one large manufacturer and a number of small businesses. Many
people are employed by a large quarrying and road surfacing company
five miles away in Powys. There is no further land identified
in the Unitary Development Plan for future industrial use. Local
companies have been moved to other sites nearer the conurbation
for economic [mostly transport costs] reasons. One of these saw
150 local jobs going or being relocated miles away.
This has a knock-on effect on local retailers
and services, as has the cessation of many building developments
in the area.
3. Many local businesses are sole traders,
a small family business, and there is a very high level of self-employment.
Many businesses are tourism related.
4. These businesses are unlikely to be involved
with Business Link of the Chamber of Commerce, but some do belong
to a small local Chamber of Trade. This lack of contact with the
larger organisations, often because of the costs of membership
and distance of travel for meetings means they miss out of many
initiatives and information.
5. There seems a huge gulf between these
small local businesses on whom so much depends in a sparse rural
area, where the landbased businesses are also suffering in the
downturn, and the Regional Development Agency or WM Task Force.
6. The abandonment of the successful Market
Towns Initiative Programme has left small market towns and the
communities which surround and depend upon them without a source
of assistance to regenerate the areas and kickstart small initiatives
which are needed in a time of recession.
7. There is a lack of understanding at regional
level of the needs of rural areas, and we request that a part
of the evidence session is set apart for looking specifically
at the difficulties being encountered at present in rural areas,
and rural market towns.
8. Many times in a rural area, the economic
development needs the input of both the voluntary and community
sectors, again there seems a reluctance to accept this at a regional
level. Rural initiatives are often small requiring only a small
amount of funding and support, but can give a vital lift to local
projects. While there remain layers of agencies, organisations,
and bureaucracy between a rural project and the funders, all taking
a "slice of a fund or grant", it can mean a much reduced
amount actually reaching the area.
9. Projects, initiatives that are for rural
areas and small market towns like Kington need Rural Proofing
at every stage, and the fact that it cost more to deliver services
and run a business in a rural area needs to be taken into account.
10. Also for Kington itself there also needs
to be a clear policy of Border Proofing as the communities along
the Welsh Border are interdependent on each other, and there needs
to be much more communication between the Welsh Development Agency
and Advantage West Midlands. Recent comments from the Welsh Assembly
have suggested they favour services to be kept within Wales.
11. We would ask for an opportunity for
rural based companies to have an input to the Select Committee,
that the effect of the Welsh Border, Welsh Assembly Policies,
the problems of getting cross border co-operation of initiatives
such as tourism which cross the border to work, the problems that
small businesses who provide jobs in a rural area have with increased
costs, are looked at as a matter of urgency.
12. We fully support the position taken
by Herefordshire Council on many of these matters.
13. We see a new round of Market Town Initiative
funding as vital, and for this to include the communities which
surround a market town.
14. We ask that the role of the voluntary
and community sectors in delivering many of these small local
initiatives is appreciated and recognised as a vital part of economic
regeneration for market towns and villages.
15. That the local Town Councils, the tier
of Local Government which is at the grass roots of democracy,
is fully informed and involved in all initiatives.
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