Malcolm Robinson

West Bedlington Town Council is currently working alongside Action for Market Towns (AMT) on a Bedlington Benchmarking Project. Benchmarking has been conducted by AMT in over 120 towns across the country and involves capturing data on 12 Key Performance Indicators within town centres such as retail offering, footfall, car parking, business confidence, shopper origin and town centre user views. Once the town centre has been reviewed, AMT will provide West Bedlington Town Council with a comprehensive report highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of Bedlington Town Centre, how it could be improved, examples of good practice and how the town fares against other towns of a similar type from across England and Wales. In the past, Benchmarking has been used to understand how town centres operate, plan and develop regeneration initiatives, measure the impact of developments and as an evidence base to attract funding. Whether you are a frequent user or someone who rarely visits Bedlington, we would like to know your views - both positive and negative! The Council would like to encourage as many users of the town centre to put forward their views by completing the online benchmarking survey which can be found on the West Bedlington Town Council website, Bedlington.co.uk web site or the hyperlink below. www.markettownresources.co.uk/BEDLINGTON/bedlington_tcu.htm Hard copies are available in the council office as well as locally. This benchmarking exercise has been funded by Northumberland County Council.