Hampshire

Hampshire Centre of Romsey

Contact details for key contacts within Hampshire can be found on our Hampshire Contacts page.


Introduction

For centuries, Hampshire’s market towns have been the focus of social and commercial activity for the county’s many rural areas. Since the war, however, this function has been under constant pressure from changes in the social, agricultural and industrial fabric of the county, and today many small towns are struggling to survive and keep their identities.

The Rural White Paper in 2000 identified the need to take action to assist small rural towns in retaining and growing their function as rural service centres or ‘hubs’, and the Countryside Agency introduced the Market Towns Initiative in 2001, designed to be accessible to individuals and partnerships through access to a web-based ‘toolkit’, handbook and resource documents.

The Economic Development Office at Hampshire County Council recognised the need to join the Initiative in 2001, and the Market Towns Project began.

Hampshire Market Towns Project

The Hampshire Market Towns Project is led by the Economic Development Office at Hampshire County Council, in partnership with the South-East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and with the South-East Rural Towns Partnership (SERTP).  A full time Market Towns Co-ordinator, Anne Harrison, part-funded by SEEDA, works with small rural towns, and promotes the Market Town Healthcheck (toolkit) throughout the county, helping to deliver the new SEEDA Small Rural Towns funding programme and to create and develop networks of interested groups. 

The total programme is worth around £7 million over a 7 year period from 2004 –2011, and the EDO works with the Hampshire Economic Partnership (HEP) Rural Economy Task Force and  the Hampshire Market Town Partnership, HMTP, to deliver around £1.2 million of this funding to Hampshire to benefit some of its small rural towns, of which 32 are potentially able to apply for project funding.  Delivery schedules are submitted regularly to SEEDA, with £1.013M already committed to Hampshire projects, and work is ongoing in New Milton, Alton, Whitehill and Bordon, Whitchurch, Stockbridge and Alresford.

The Hampshire Market Town Manager is also responsible for the supervision of one staff member, in New Milton.  In other towns, town project managers / officers are supported by their town and/or district councils, with some assistance from local businesses.


Details of completed Healthcheck Plans are available under the Healthcheck section

Hampshire projects can be found under Hampshire Case Studies


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