A plan to spruce up Rutland's two market towns is being pulled together. 

Rutland County Council has used government funding to pay a planning consultant to come up with a scheme to rejuvenate the historic centres of Oakham and Uppingham. 

There has been a series of meetings between the town councils, staff from the county authority and consultancy Placemake with the plans expected to be unveiled for public consideration later this year. 

Rather than any major new scheme, the project has involved looking at how the town centres operate and ways to enliven them.



Plans are in the works with contributions from Oakham and Uppingham Town Council chairs (Photo: LDRS)

Chairman of Oakham Town Council Paul Ainsley has been involved in the discussions. He said: "There is not going to be anything like the one-way system suggestions, which caused a lot of upset. I don't think it is anything contentious, it is more of an incremental approach. There is no major project that is being mooted. It is lots of steps to actually go towards a better vision for the town centre." 

He said the views of the traders, which had been gathered by the town council from some meetings held at the end of last year, have fed into the plans. 

Chairman of Uppingham Town Council David Ainslie said the details would be discussed at the full council meeting next month. 

He explained that the planning consultant would address the issue of people arriving in town and not knowing where to find all the shops and visitor attractions that might be of interest.  

"He is basically helping us to think about how we might get the best out of the visitor experience to our town," he added. 

"It is definitely a useful first step to help think about ways we could get the most out of our town for the people who trade here." 

The consultant has been paid £14,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) to come up with the scheme. Both town council chairmen said there was currently no money on the table from the county authority to make any town centre improvements, but there may be funding opportunities identified later. 

A Rutland County Council spokesperson said: "We're continuing to look at how UKSPF and other forms of funding or practical business support can be used to help our market towns. Collaboration with local traders and town councils has been really positive and we expect to finish this preliminary planning before the summer."