Making Assets Work, The Quirk Review of community management and ownership of public assets (2007) recommends handing over some underused publicly-owned assets to community groups that with a bit of help could make good use of them, to the benefit of all - just what the Market House Festival was about!
From the introduction, A vision for the future by Barry Quirk, Chair of the Review:
" ...The strongest assets of any community are its people; their character and their personal connections with the wider world. The fixed public assets in a community – the roads, the parks, the publicly owned land, buildings and facilities – are key resources for communities in their search for success but they are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for that success. Confident, capable and ambitious community groups and social entrepreneurs can succeed on the flimsiest of asset bases and despite the apathy of established authority. But they are more likely to succeed if they are less under-capitalised and if they receive support and assistance from local public and other agencies.
This Review is focused on how to optimise the community benefit of publicly owned assets
by considering options for greater transfer of asset ownership and management to community groups..."