Deputy PM launches new programme

HAVING taken a severe battering for its handling of rural affairs since its landslide election victory four years ago, the Government went back on the offensive today by launching a new self-help plan to boost prosperity in small country towns.

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, was in Market Drayton, Shropshire, to unveil the Market Town Toolkit, a measure to help towns like Skipton, Hawes and Settle to set up their own regeneration schemes drawing from funds which could top £100 million nationwide.

Towns with populations between 2,000 and 20,000 are being shown how to raise funds either from outside sources or local initiatives and any cash they raise will be matched by the Government. Successful bids could mean as much as £1 million to a single town.

Toolkit is one of the measures announced in last year's Rural White Paper. Says the Countryside Agency: "The main tool in the Toolkit is a market towns health check which helps local people to identify the economic, social and environmental strengths and weaknesses of the town and its surrounding countryside."

For more information, log onto www.towns.org.uk.