Large town’s aren’t rural
Posted by wonkotsane on December 9, 2006
Advantage West Midlands, the unelected Regional Development Agency for the region, is spending £5.9m of taxpayers money a Rural Regeneration Zone Enterprise Centre Network. In plain English – serviced offices.
The main “hubs” will be located in Rotherwas, Hereford and Shrewsbury, Shropshire. “Spoke” sites will be located in Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Bridgnorth and Market Drayton.
The key word here is “rural” and you may have noticed that none of these places is particularly rural. Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire and the second largest town in the county. Rotherwas is similarly a large and busy town in Herefordshire. Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Bridgnorth and Market Drayton are also major towns.
The problem with having a regional quango based in the centre of England’s second city is that to them, anywhere with less than a million people is rural. It’s people living out in the sticks that need the help, not those living in major towns.
