News Centre

23 Oct 2012 (archived)

Town Team partners

Carterton and Chipping Norton have been invited to join the national Town Team partners programme, which came out of the Portas Review.

They will each receive £10,000 funding and access to a Town Teams partners' support package, which will include:

an advice line and a network of advisers managed by the Association of Town Centre Management, as well as key informative events;
direct mentoring and visits from a range of retail experts;
regular meetings with other Town Teams to share lessons learned, tips and ideas;
an online community to receive advice and information from retail experts.

Carterton and Chipping Norton qualified as Town Team partners because of their enthusiasm for the Portas Pilot scheme, which drew in 326 applicants.

Carterton will be using their £10,000, along with other funding from the Design Council and S106 from the new Morrisons store, for town centre improvements including the creation of a new market square in front of the Town Hall. The plans also involve a Town Hall extension for a downstairs reception and Job Search area and improved pedestrian links throughout the town. A public meeting is being held at Carterton Town Hall on November 22^nd at 7pm to inform the wider community of the plans and to listen to their views.

Cllr Adrian Coomber, the Town Mayor said, "We welcome this funding which will help kick start these exciting plans for the town centre, and urge members of the community to become involved by coming along to the meeting".

In Chipping Norton, a consortium of local business owners, called Experience Chipping Norton, made the application. They will be using their funding for a town marketing campaign.

Adam Jennings, a local businessman and member of the Experience Chipping Norton core team said, "We want to make Chipping Norton a more visible and attractive destination for visitors and businesses by providing promotion through a number of connected schemes."

Funding will be managed by West Oxfordshire District Council.

Cllr Barry Norton, Leader of West Oxfordshire District Council said, "This is good news for Carterton and Chipping Norton and has the full support of our Member of Parliament, David Cameron. We look forward to working with both town teams and helping them to make their town centres vibrant and prosperous."

The Portas Pilot scheme is taking forward the first recommendation from Mary Portas's High Street review. It is about encouraging local partnerships and consortiums to come up with innovative ideas of their own about how to transform their local high street into a social place, bustling with people, services and jobs.

The Portas Review into the High Street's future was published on 13 December 2011.

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