Evesham, Uttoxeter and Spalding have been selected a Beacon towns in the national Market Towns Initiative.

As with the existing Beacon Towns, each town will demonstrate how best to tackle a particular issue or range of issues, such as community safety, development of business opportunities and resources, housing, and access to leisure, arts and recreation. The towns were selected, in consultation with local partners, from more than 235 towns taking part in the Countryside Agency's Market Towns Initiative.

The projects identified by the new Beacon Towns are:

In Evesham, the Market Town Partnership will be working with key partners to develop a range of pilot initiatives aimed at improving the understanding of the issues around short term contract workers employed by local food and farming businesses. Such employment, although essential to the economic success of the businesses, can create pressures on local housing, transport safety, fear of crime and the exploitation of workers.

In Spalding and South Holland, another key centre for horticulture, agricultural activity and food production, the Beacon Town work will support a number of projects aimed at improving understanding of how market towns can provide methods of community integration for short term contract workers.

In Uttoxeter, key partners involved in the Uttoxeter Plus Market Town Initiative have identified the need to produce an integrated transport plan for the town and surrounding area.

The three towns bring the total number of Beacon towns in England to 18.

Pam Warhurst, Chair of the Countryside Agency said: ""We are delighted with the enthusiasm with which market towns have grasped the opportunities to find solutions to these challenging issues. We have selected Evesham, Spalding and Uttoxeter as 'beacons' to develop imaginative long term solutions which will not only benefit their local communities but means they can share their experiences and solutions with towns across the country."

The Rural White Paper 2000 recognised the crucial role that market towns play in rural life and tasked the Countryside Agency with developing and promoting a market towns health-check, to identify good practice and identify and support a national beacon town network as part of an overall approach to revitalising market towns in partnership with the regional development agencies.

Beacon Towns will influence policy at regional, national and EU level and encourage others to follow their lead. It is important to note that the term, "Beacon", does not mean they are in some way the best. Beacon Towns have been selected because their town partnerships are interested in particular topics, or are running projects that are of interest in terms of both policy and practice. The towns also have strong partnerships in that are willing and able to "tell their stories".

Beacon Towns are an integral part of the Market Towns Initiative, and the lessons learnt from them will be fed into Countryside Agency policy to enable other market towns and the Agency's partners to benefit from their experiences and knowledge.