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Town centre management

One of the priorities in our Corporate Plan is to promote business and tourism in the district.

One way of achieving this is for us to work with our partners in the public and private sector and with the local community in Bridgnorth town to establish a Town Centre Management Partnership (TCMP) model for the town.

During 2006, we commissioned the Centre for Economic Regeneration (CESR) at Staffordshire University to assess the feasibility for a Town Centre Management (TCM) Partnership for Bridgnorth. Based on their research, CESR prepared a

draft vision and strategy for the Management of Bridgnorth Town Centre.

As a result of the work by CESR, an embryo steering group of interested individuals was established in June 2006.

This group meets on a regular and informal basis and anyone is welcome to join the group and should contact the membership secretary, Dermott Creece via email on djcbookbinder@onetel.com, for further details.

The steering group is working to implement the strategy and since early 2007 has been incorporated as a company limited by guarantee and community interest company under the name Bridgnorth Development Trust CIC, which will help it to progress projects and apply for funding in its own name.

On March 1 an open public meeting was held in the Town Hall in Bridgnorth at which the draft strategy was presented to an audience of some 40 people. There was a lot of positive feedback and a number of business people agreed to join the embryo steering group and to support the initiative.

The draft strategy was adopted by the district council on 20th June 2007 and work is progressing on devising an action plan which will help to address some of the issues that are hampering the future prosperity of Bridgnorth town.

One of the projects that the group is actively involved with is a tourism initiative called Better Welcome, which is funded by Advantage West Midlands (AWM).

Better Welcome will identify ways to improve the attractiveness of Bridgnorth town to tourists and visitors through a combination of surveys, questionnaires and workshops.

The result of the project will be an action plan of projects for which funding of up to £25,000 from AWM has been allocated to the town (subject to a successful application).

The TCMP has recently taken on the organisation of the well-established Bridgnorth Victorian Street Fair. The aim is to grow and energise this event as a major social and trade occasion for the town and as part of the plans it has been re-named the Winter Street Fair. The date for your diaries is Sunday December 9th 2007. It will be a great showcase for the town, so please come along and support the Fair.

For further information, please contact the External Funding Officer at bwalker@bridgnorth-dc.gov.uk or call 01746 713246.