The regional Market and Coastal Towns Initiative (MCTi) was launched in
2001 by a regional partnership of organisations in response to
Government and South West regional policy initiatives including the
Rural White Paper, the South West of England Regional Development
Agency's (SWRDA) Regional Economic Strategy and the Countryside
Agency’s Market Towns programme.
The object of the initiative was to produce strategic plans that
promote the regeneration of market and coastal towns. The
fundamental concept was that the plan should be a consequence of
aspirations and not be generated by local government bodies; in short
it had to be ‘community fed not authority led’. It was recognised
that the plan should cover a long timescale, with a vision of up to
thirty years if necessary.
In September 2001, the Tidworth Regeneration Partnership submitted
their ‘Expression of Interest’ to SWRDA. The document included
information from previous strategies, studies and consultations.
The document set out the area to be covered by the application, which
included the garrison town of Tidworth and all the parishes in its
rural hinterland, known as the Tidworth Community Area. The
parishes are Chute, Chute Forest, Collingbourne Ducis, Collingbourne
Kingston, Everleigh, Ludgershall, Tidcombe and Fosbury and Tidworth
(including Perham Down).
An offer of funding was received from SWRDA in January 2002. This
funding has been crucial in forming the structure to take forward the
community planning process, ensuring that people and organisations from
all the parishes in the Community Area were able to be involved in the
preparation of the Community Plan. This involvement from the
community continues to the present day as we work on the delivery of
the actions and projects identified by public consultation.
People from the community as well as local organisations, businesses
and representatives from the statutory authorities work together, to
bring about regeneration in the Tidworth Community Area.
