RETURNING from a short break in North Devon last week, it was heart-warming to read that Cherwell District Council has voted to borrow £1m to invest in, oh no, a motor heritage centre at the Silverstone GP circuit.

Never mind the long-established motor heritage centre not far away at Gaydon or whether the country needs another homage to the motor car anyway, it wasn’t clear why the council is borrowing to invest in Northamptonshire at all.

Looking into it in more detail, it appears that no one can say whether or not the investment will be a good or a bad business decision, especially if the circuit loses its status as a Formula 1 venue, and that the loan is to a private company on an unsecured basis.

Now, borrowing to invest is not new. After all, anyone who buys a house borrows to invest, not in an asset as such but mainly to build a home and community to live in. So the principle of the District Council borrowing to invest in its own communities is a great idea.

An obvious case for borrowing to invest in Bicester is the town centre. The district council has already acquired Castle Quay in Banbury and there are good examples from around the country of local authorities buying up town centre premises where shops are empty and footfall is in decline.

In Ashford, the council bought the shopping centre and offered flexible terms in rents and rates to local independent traders, to encourage businesses to develop and get established. It also introduced a programme of family friendly activities to pull in shoppers. The result? An increase in footfall of 0.8 per cent last year and increases in sales of up to 13 per cent.

Parking costs are also important for market towns like Bicester. In 2015, local vandals in Cardigan smashed up the parking machines looking for more beer money and the council wasn’t prepared to replace them immediately, so all parking was free. Lo and behold, footfall increased dramatically and sales rose.

Now I’m not suggesting we mobilise local vandals to repeat such an experiment, but experience shows that when parking is free, local shops benefit. So, two hours free parking would be a useful first step. As part of a town centre strategy, local authorities should not view parking provision as a short-term method to raise money but more as a service for local people, and importantly, a way of supporting the local high street.

And while we are about it, how about introducing a local currency? If we are serious about investing in our market towns, a local currency – the Bicester (or Cherwell) pound - might be the way to go.

Local currencies provide the opportunity to strengthen the local economy whilst preventing money leaking out. The Totnes currency for example, est. 2006, can be spent in butchers, curry houses or fish shops, but not the local Tesco.

Bottom line? Investment in local communities is collaborative. There is much local councils can do, provided there is the will to do it.