TWO Wyre Forest market towns could be in line for a windfall to boost their economies.

Bewdley and Stourport have been highlighted as possible key areas for support from a multi-million pound development agency kitty to be administered by Advantage West Midlands.

This would include public funding as well as help in other ways from Government backed schemes to encourage employment and prosperity in the countryside.

A decision is due possibly before the end of the year on whether to include the two towns as key "regeneration zones" in an area covering Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire

Market town development is seen as offering the best hope for people living in remote rural areas who need jobs, services or centres for setting up new businesses.

And although Bewdley and Stourport are still in the melting pot in the first stage of decision making, they have been picked out as possible contenders for a share of AWMs annual regeneration fund of £110 million.

It would be channelled into a wide range of schemes from building new community centres to introducing new technology and improving infrastructure for business.

Worcestershire County Council is starting work on a required 10-year prospectus to show how AWM investment in key zones would improve services for rural people and the areas in which they live.

Priority areas have been selected by county partnerships made up of bodies ranging from community councils and health and local authorities to police and chambers of commerce.

Bewdley and Stourport will be competing with other areas like Wem in Shropshire, Hereford in Herefordshire and the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire.

Bewdley is described as a market town that is an important centre for tourism related services and as benefiting from excellent arterial links.

The Worcestershire Partnership has urged consideration of Stourport also as "a key market town" with potential to develop canal basins, marina, caravan park and a nature reserve.

It is also seen as a choice area for private investment and a place where conservation projects can be sited.

The partnership points out it offers six acres of brownfield development land and argues that although some traditional industries are in decline, it can offer examples of high quality high-tech innovation in new industrial clusters.