The History of Middlewich Vision

A Market Town Initiative

The Market Towns Initiative was originally established by the Countryside Agency with support from the Development Agencies to help revitalise the role of the market town as a rural service centre in the 21st century. The initiative included a ‘healthcheck’ of the town’s economy and social assets and funding for a Market Towns Healthcheck Co-ordinator to take forward the vision and implement projects identified from the healthcheck. 

The aim of the initiative was to be a springboard for market town regeneration where the revitalisation meets the needs of local people. The process would create a shared vision of the town’s future, shaped by people who live and work in the town and the surrounding rural hinterland.

The Roman Festival in 2002...
brought together a whole cross section of the town’s community successfully working hand in hand with the Council. The Town Council decided to extend this new way of working with the community to areas other than the Roman Project to include many more aspects of life in the town in order ultimately to produce a new Vision for Middlewich. Hence a new Vision Partnership was born.  

In 2003, the Town Council recognised...
that much of the work being undertaken through their vision partnership mirrored the work being undertaken by other towns under the Market Town Healthcheck Initiative, albeit not using the methodology in the Countryside Agency’s Healthcheck Handbook. Joint discussions were then held between the Town Council and Cheshire County Council resulting in joint funding for the appointment in December 2003 of two Officers to carry out a full Healthcheck of Middlewich and its surrounding rural areas in accordance with the principles and methodology set out in the Countryside Agency’s Handbook.

The Development of Middlewich Vision Partnership 

The Partnership is...
a coalition of organisations and individuals from Middlewich and its surrounding rural areas who agreed to work together for the common aim of producing a new Vision for Middlewich and an Action Plan under the Market Town Healthcheck Initiative scheme.  In order that the Vision and Action Plan was properly based on the community’s needs and aspirations, and was owned by those people, the Partnership’s membership was drawn widely from the town and immediate surroundings.

The key to the success of the Middlewich Vision Action Plan has been the ability of the Partners to work together on an equal footing towards a common goal.