Look & Learn visits
As well as holding regular
networking meetings around the county for people
to share information, the Forum organises
Look and Learn visits to communities
in and around the county which have developed
innovative regeneration ideas.
Latest event Going
Green in Faringdon! Report from our June 17
visit
Next event Ledbury on September 2nd 2010 (note revised date!)
Latest event
GMTF 'Look and Learn' Visit to Faringdon, June 17 2010
To read the full, illustrated report of the
visit, click on the image (right) to open the
pdf.
Fifteen representatives from ten of our member towns
popped over the Oxfordshire border to visit Friar's
Court, Clanfield on June 17 to learn how the
Faringdon Project set up their Ecoweek, the project
that received the overall National Award from Action
for Market Towns at last Autumn's Conference.
The long journey and the five and a half hours spent
at the farm of John Willmer and his son Charles was
worth all the effort. If ever there is a man to
inspire people, John will celebrate his 90th birthday
in August. A sprightly gentleman, he has taken on
board all ideas of alternative energy with relish and
has proved to Defra (from the days of MAFF) that
nothing is impossible.
Next event
The next Look and Learn visit organised by the Forum
will be to Ledbury
on September 2nd 2010, 2pm
to find out more about how a Victorian Cottage
Hospital has been transformed into a community
business hub as guests of the Ledbury Area
Development Trust.
The Old Hospital
Studios is a flagship project and
shows how a Victorian Cottage Hospital can be updated
for the twenty-first century providing a valuable
asset for this picturesque border town. In the
meantime, a new private finance initiative has
provided the town with much-needed modern community
hospital facilities. The Ledbury Area Development
Trust now has its headquarters within the refurbished
Studios and is managing this excellent asset,
primarily targeted at local, young entrepreneurial
businesses.
Ledbury Area Development Trust is a not for profit
organisation set up in 2005 following acceptance into
the Market Towns Initiative managed through Advantage
West Midlands. Consultation work with local people
resulted in £2.9m being made available by
Herefordshire County Council for the Master's
House/Library project close to the town centre car
park that incorporates a Tourism and Visitor Centre
and establishing a pilot project for using eBay for
the benefit of the local community.
Attendees will need to make their own arrangements
to travel to Ledbury.
For a map, click
here.
Ledbury is reached on the A417 so it is a fairly
straightforward route from Gloucester via Maisemore
and Hartpury, or via the M5 and M50 to junction 2. It
could be well worth making an early start and having
a picnic lunch en route. Alternatively, there are
some nice eating houses in the town.
Some GMTF
members will have visited the town shortly after the
Development Trust publicised its Strategic Plan - we
hope they, and others who did not take part in that
trip, will take this opportunity of paying a return
visit to our near neighbour.
Please contact Janet Marrott on
marrott@tiscali.co.uk by Thursday 26th
August if you plan to attend.
More information will be issued through our
e-bulletin nearer the time. To sign up for our
e-bulletins, e-mail info@glosmtf.org.uk
.