Businesses to work together on ambitious plan to make Market Drayton 'talk of north Shropshire'

The inaugural Make it in Market Drayton event kicked off on Thursday (June 26), billed as a chance for the town's business community to get together and share ideas.

Around 65 business owners attended the event at the Festival Drayton Centre to draw up plans to promote the town's independent businesses and high street shops.

The gathering was part of an ongoing action plan backed by Make it Market Drayton, an initiative designed to promote the town and its independent businesses, with town mayor Tim Manton delighted with the level of enthusiasm on display for the project.

"It was brilliant, and I don't say it lightly. It was a fantastic event, incredibly well atended by business owners in Market Drayton, and for any sized community it would represent a really good turnout," he said.

"It was incredibly vibrant and what really pleased me is the degree at which people were engaged in that process, the degree of positivity in that meeting was wonderful to see."

The initiative is part of a council-backed scheme to improve Market Drayton's town centre, which has been blighted by a number of issues including empty retail units and a lack of a combined promotion plan for the area.

A report commissioned by Market Drayton Town Council has led to a seven-point action plan to improve the town, with the business initiative seen as a key part of planned improvements - which also include work on bringing empty shops back into use and helping existing businesses promote their offer.

"We want to make strides on these actions and we have already on certain things, and I think you can feel that in the town," added Councillor Manton. 

"The general positivity in Market Drayton is definitely on the up, there's definitely a better 'vibe' and  it makes me so happy to be a part of that. As a business owner myself we survive on success and I want to help bring that to Market Drayton, because it's the only way we're going to make this town the talk of north Shropshire."

For Make it Market Drayton organiser Helen McCabe, it was the latest step in an ongoing project which started off as an online campaign in February, designed to support the local economy by showcasing everything Market Drayton has to offer.

"It was a really positive event and we talked a lot about how we can work together better in the future to promote Market Drayton," she said.

"We had about 65 businesses come and join us, the speakers did really well and shared their stories and challenges about running a business in the town which we've already had great feedback on.

"People really enjoyed the networking element as well. We've been building an online platform for people to share news and events which people have loved, the facebook group in particular, but we got the feeling some people had never met which is funny in a smaller town so there was lots of networking and cards swapping."