Market Rasen Town Council applies for membership to rural group

Market Rasen Town Council has voted to join The Rural Market Towns Group - part of the Rural Services Network (RSN).
Market Rasen Town CouncilMarket Rasen Town Council
Market Rasen Town Council

The RSN represents rural 
areas across England, and a discussion about joining was held at this month’s Market Rasen Town Council meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Mayor, Councillor Stephen Bunney said: “The RSN is an organisation which supports rural causes and helps with funding

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“Every month they send out a list of all the funders and they are also looking at the way that things are funded

“It will be people working together and they will provide information which we should be able to use to drive what we want to do as a town forward.”

Coun Cathy Sirett added: “I like the fact it is based on rural market towns.

“I think it might be 
sensible to join it and see how it goes. It also addresses a lot of the issues that we talk about.”

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Coun Bunney added: “It will involve work as the idea is that they will pass information on to us.

“It does provide articles of information which are 
important

“How effective it will be - I couldn’t say - but I would have thought it would be worthwhile looking at it for the first year

“At the end of the day it is a pressure group on the Government.”

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Councillors voted to apply for membership to the RSN - which costs £110+VAT.

• The RSN provide a
comprehensive service with a weekly bulletin based around rural news and a monthly 
digest of rural grant opportunities and consultation information.

Members get:

• Formation of a dedicated Rural Market Towns Group offering some peer-to-peer networking and discussion opportunities and input into the national rural agenda.

• Development of good practice and learning 
materials related to the key policy area and delivery challenges or opportunities for rural/market towns.

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• Provision of a dedicated quarterly newsletter highlighting relevant latest policy developments, showcasing interesting member practice and flagging relevant initiatives or funding opportunities

• Provision of some benchmark statistics about rural/market towns

• Free RSN community membership for local organisations

According to the RSN, there are already 73 councils backing the initiative.

The latest list published by the RSN, shows that Market Rasen Town Council will be the first representative in Lincolnshire.

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A spokesman from RSN said: “Put simply we want to create a grouping of market/rural towns across rural England to evidence and promote the rural market town case to national decision makers.

“Twenty years ago the phrase ‘market town’ was seemingly a reasonably recognised one nationally - including through some Lottery Funding. Now there is a real danger that this focus has faded with the current emphasis on urban towns

For more info, visit www.
rsnonline.org.uk