Comments by Nick Harvey MP for North Devon

This Strategic Action Plan is the culmination of several years of hard work on the part of many people in South Molton and the surrounding area. It expresses the hopes and aspirations of the community for the next couple of decades. And it sets out to capitalise on the available sources of public funding – supported by the Market & Coastal Towns Initiative – to help make those plans become a reality.

South Molton is rightly proud of its history and tradition as a market town. And, despite the fast-changing shape of livestock marketing, I firmly believe that there will continue to be a need for a modern and efficient market in North Devon indefinitely. With Barnstaple’s market now closed, South Molton is the obvious place to host that modern facility, and it is essential to the town’s future that this be located out of the town centre. This will free up the existing market site for a range of new uses, and also be more accessible for farmers and traders transporting animals from the whole of North Devon and further afield. So I am right behind the plan to put a new market alongside the A361 link road.

The plan also identifies correctly the lack of facilities for youngsters in South Molton, as well as the limited economic opportunities for young people to find work, build careers and prosper without having to leave the area. Liaising with young people as to what facilities they want is the key, and the plans to build a new centre, a skate park and to improve sporting and recreational amenities seem to me to be on the right lines – and of the highest importance.

Economic regeneration, including business and marketing strategies, increasing the supply of housing, and improving transport links are the necessary ingredients for future prosperity – and complete the ambitious programmes set out here.

I am confident that this plan points the way forward to a brighter future for South Molton and the many parishes which look to it as their focal point. If the partnerships which have been formed in creating the plan can grow, and rise to the challenge of implementing it over the years to come, then I believe it will come to be looked back on as a crucial turning point in South Molton’s fortunes.

Nick Harvey
MP for North Devon