Wendy Cockcroft · @wendycockcroft
13th Apr 2015 from TwitLonger
Answer to your question on Middle-out 2. What do you mean by "community-based"?
@spuncho 2. What do you mean by "community-based"? Does it just mean that everyone is involved in some way?
Industries controlled from a centralised location outside the community would up sticks and leave if it was no longer profitable for them to continue operating there. Margaret Thatcher shut down most of Britain's coal mines during the Eighties because they weren't profitable. This was easy to do; they were centrally-run nationalised industries where civil servants in Westminster, London, had the final say over what happened there. This policy ripped the hearts out of the communities and forced many thousands of people onto the dole. Community-based regeneration projects e.g. Newstead, many of which are funded by grants from the National Lottery, are helping to bring them back to life. Sometimes just linking them up to traffic arteries helps to bring new business in, e.g. Grimethorpe. It's impossible to involve everyone but it is possible to create an environment in which most people can find a niche, be it ever so small, e.g. running a stall at the town marketplace. Local farmers providing regional specialities tend to do well in such places.