A RETAIL development tycoon is set to advise Northallerton business owners and community leaders about how a northern market town has united to tackle challenges such as parking charges and internet shopping.

Mark Dransfield, whose firm developed Morpeth’s award-winning Sanderson Arcade, will speak to Northallerton Retail and Business Forum to explain how his team works closely with other stakeholders in the Northumberland town to improve the local economy.

The two towns are seen as directly comparable as they have similar populations, large rural catchment areas and have both experienced issues such as parking charges.

Business owners in Northallerton have reported losses of up to 40 per cent in revenue since North Yorkshire County Council introduced parking charges on the High Street earlier this year as part of a drive to increase the number of shoppers visiting the town.

They were delighted when Hambleton District Council announced it would forfeit £100,000 in income to enable shoppers to park free for an hour in the 148 short stay spaces in the Applegarth car park, a scheme that started on Wednesday.

Following a lengthy campaign by traders in Morpeth, free on-street and council car park parking was reintroduced earlier this year, while other efforts to boost the economy have included marketing campaigns, regular events to drive footfall and the relaunch of the town’s markets.

Mr Dransfield, whose company specialises in urban regeneration schemes that keep retail activity close to town centres, will be joined by Medi Parry, Sanderson Arcade’s centre manager.

He says the location of food stores, such as the proposed Marks & Spencer supermarket on the former Rutson Hospital site, in Northallerton, determine people’s shopping patterns.

Gareth Dant, the forum's secretary, said: “Our chairman Charles Barker went to see what has been achieved in Morpeth and was very impressed.

"We are delighted that Mark, who has no commercial interest in Northallerton other than a desire to share what he has learned in Morpeth and elsewhere, has been able to take up our invite.

“When the forum was founded two years ago, one of the things members discussed was an opportunity to hear from similar towns in the region about what they found worked – and didn’t work – when it came to increasing footfall in the face of the recession, shoppers’ drift online and parking charges.”

Traders, community groups and councillors are being invited to attend the meeting on Wednesday, from 5.30pm, in the upstairs restaurant in Barkers’ High Street store.