A campaign to revive Britain’s market towns is being stepped up in the north-east, where the Darlington and Stockton Times is promoting a different town each week.

Shops are being invited to display Market Town Revival stickers – “personalised” for each town featured.

The campaign aims to:

• Promote the interests of the market towns and the rural areas they serve;
• Help them compete against out-of-town shopping centres;
• Promote best practice in town centre management and regeneration.

This week’s feature concentrates on Barnard Castle, listed in the top 50 of Britain’s 1,000 market towns.

The paper said the town is not widely known outside the north-east, something it said needed to be addressed.

The Times said: “Residents and visitors alike enjoy pleasant, unhurried treatment in its individual shops and businesses, as well as the splendour of the Bowes museum and castle and the tranquility of Scar Top and the Demesnes just a few minutes from the town centre.

“Concern about the town’s long-term future has already led to the formation of a number of partnerships, aimed at co-ordinating efforts to keep the town prosperous.”

The paper examined issues such as marketing the town, solving parking difficulties and the possibility of new supermarkets.

It devoted a two-page broadsheet spread to the campaign.

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