First Middleton Town Team Community Event held

Middleton Town Team Community Event

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The first Middleton Town Team Community Event was held last week as a way for the Middleton Town Team to update people on the progress made within Middleton and for ideas to be put forward for the future of Middleton.

The aim of the Town Team is to focus on revitalising Middleton Town Centre and is made up of public and private sector organisations and community representatives.

During the meeting, those in attendance were updated on the action plan for 2013 and presented with priorities for 2014:

• Forming a social enterprise. 
• A pop up cinema in Middleton Arena. 
• The Teenage Market launching in Easter 2014. 
• Empty shop strategy. 
• Marketing and communications. 
• Middleton Visitors Guide. 
• A town centre events programme. 

Chairman of the committee, Adam Torevell said: “The first meeting was very interesting. There is a lot of support and work being done behind the scenes to make Middleton a better place to work, live, shop and socialise. I think that the support RMBC and local businesses have shown the town team helps generate a positive vibe.”

The meeting lasted just over two hours and was attended by a number of people from across the business community as well as representatives from the local council.

Adam added: “These meetings help us to generate new ideas for the town and helps us identify issues that businesses and the local community have. This then feeds in to the strategic planning we do for the short and long term.”

Alison Johnson from Lords of Middleton attended the meeting and said: “It was very informative. I learnt a lot about the heritage of Middleton which I didn’t know before, even though I live in the town. I hope these meetings help put Middleton back on the map and give us a good press.”

Steve O’Toole from Boots and vice chairman of the committee said: “I think it was a good meeting. I would have loved to have seen more people there but I think it went realty well. All of the speakers were good and enthusiastic. It was good to hear from Debbie Hernon about the future of towns. Mark Widdup from the council was very enthusiastic and the talk about the Heritage was great and something that we need to focus our attention on.”

The meeting included a number of presentations and workshop activities to find out peoples ideas for the town. “I think the current format works well but we will be discussing any ideas to change the format at the next town team meeting,” said Adam.

Community meetings held by the town team are open to anyone and are to be held every six months. The committee meetings, which are open to members only, are to be held every six weeks.