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A major public consultation was held in 2004 in order to enable all the residents within Middlewich and the surrounding villages to give their views on the town and how they would like to see it develop.
From all the information gathered an exciting and inspiring Vision and Action Plan for Middlewich were created. With the support of the Partnership and the wider Community this is now steering the future development within Middlewich and the surrounding villages and attracting new funding and economic activity to the town.
In 2005, the Vision re-consulted the community and drew up a shortlist of major priority projects.
The History of Middlewich Market Town Initiative
In 2002, following on from a successful festival in 2001 to celebrate Middlewich’s Roman heritage, the Town Council recognised that the celebration of the town’s heritage could play an important role in its future regeneration.
The Roman Festival brought together a whole cross section of the town’s community successfully working hand in hand with the Council. The Town Council decided to extend this new way of working with the community to areas other than the Roman Project to include many more aspects of life in the town in order ultimately to produce a new Vision for Middlewich. Hence a new Vision Partnership was born.
In 2003, the Town Council recognised that much of the work being undertaken under the Vision process mirrored the work being undertaken by other towns under the Market Town Healthcheck Initiative, albeit not using the methodology in the Countryside Agency’s Healthcheck Handbook. Joint discussions were then held between the Town Council and Cheshire County Council resulting in joint funding for the appointment in December 2003 of Stephen Dent as Healthcheck Co-ordinator and Caroline O’Brien as Project Support Officer to carry out a full Healthcheck of Middlewich and its surrounding rural areas in accordance with the principles and methodology set out in the Countryside Agency’s Handbook.
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