18/01/12….Thame to lose its Market Town Co-ordinator

FOLLOWING a review of its support for market towns, South Oxfordshire District Council will no longer be funding the role of Thame’s part-time Market Town Co-ordinator.

The Market Town Co-ordinators were originally funded to work with the respective town councils and representative bodies to help boost the local economy. Thame’s MCT, Alison Isherwood, has become a familiar face around the town and has been particularly instrumental in working with 21st Century Thame on the implementation of the Thame Loyalty Card scheme and growing and promoting the Thame food festival.

Wallingford and Henley will continue to have their MTCs partly funded by SODC and partly by each of their town councils for a further two years, whilst the equivalent funding for Thame will be available for bidding by community stakeholders and business organisations on a project by project basis.

Cllr Judith Nimmo-Smith, Cabinet Member for Economy, Property and Technical Services at SODC, said: ?It had become very clear that the one-size fits all approach was no longer working for our market towns and that ideas which had proved very successful in one location were often not appropriate for the other towns.

?Over the last few months we have been working with the town councils and partnerships to tailor an individual approach to each area which we think will make the best use of available funding. We are confident that this will lead to significant benefits, both long and short term, for everyone in Henley, Thame and Wallingford.?

Subject to SODC’s Scutiny process, the new arrangements will be in place from April.