Rural Towns

Traditional small market towns, such as Cranbrook, New Romney or Minster, are service centres for their community and for a wider area. With centralisation of public services and the decline of services and facilities in villages, Kent’s small rural towns are assuming a greater importance.

We are at the centre of a new Kent Rural Towns Group - a network of such towns and organisations that are there to help small rural towns survive, develop and thrive in response to local needs. We provide links to help, advice and funding from the South East Rural Towns Partnership, the South East England Development Agency and the Countryside Agency.

Issues surrounding market towns were featured in the Government’s “Rural White Paper” of November 2000. The Countryside Agency has taken positive steps towards helping market towns by producing a “Market Towns Toolkit” for use within those communities.

We can advise on all aspects of small rural town regeneration in Kent. For more information contact Sue Beer on 01303 850816 or click here to submit an enquiry.