A £2-MILLION project which has helped create new jobs and businesses could have turned Ulverston into a role model market town.

Ulverston 2000 has created 57 new businesses and at least 148 new jobs.

Some £200,000 of grant assistance has levered £800,000 private sector investment for the restoration of 54 buildings and £2.3 million has been spent in the town centre in the past four years.

Twenty-four out of 31 once-empty shops are re-occupied, five craft studios created above shops, six Farmers' Markets held each year, two new major tourist attractions opened and the town is becoming known for its highly successful festivals, six of which are brand new.

"What has happened has been a benchmark for other towns," said South Lakeland District Council town centres officer Jayne Harris.

The work of the partnership has been admired by English Heritage, the North West Development Agency and other district and city councils, including Carlisle, Wigton and Lincoln.

Hopes have even been raised that Ulverston could become one of the Government's 'beacon towns' and an exemplar of a prosperous market town, as proposed in the recent Rural White Paper.

Ulverston 2000+ was established in October 1996 after the Civic Trust Regeneration Unit found the town centre economy in decline.

Problems included the expansion of Barrow town centre and out-of-town shopping, the opening of Booth's, traffic and parking problems, reduction of choice with the closure of many shops and a decline in employment at VSEL.

They also discovered from shopkeepers and small businesses that incomes had dropped by 15 per cent in the previous two years.

A partnership was set up, involving the town, district and county councils, Furness Enterprise, Furness Tourism Partnership, police, Ulverston Traders Association, LVA and the Rural Development Commission among others.

Funding was drawn down from the European Union, Regional Development Council, town, district and county council, English Heritage, the Arts and Heritage Lottery and the private sector.

Mrs Harris said there was a new feel-good factor in the town.

"Ulverston is becoming known for its festivals, vibrancy and the fact that something is always going on.

And we haven't simply done this to bring in tourists, although that is the icing on the cake - we've done it for local people."

Chairman of the Ulverston Traders Association Ralph Spours said traders were delighted and put the success down to team effort.

And Ulverston town councillor Ron Creer, who proposed setting up the group, described its success as "unbelievable".

"It is down to the sheer breadth of the representation and the support of the SLDC officers without whom it would not have happened," he said.

Harry Knowles, chief executive of Furness Enterprise, said Ulverston had suffered from massive redundancies in the defence industry and the move to out-of-town shopping.

"Through Ulverston 2000+ Ulverston has now reinvented itself as a town centre full of interesting shops and, therefore, appeals far more to the tourist as well as the local shopper."

SLDC head of economy and development Richard Greenwood said an impressive programme of work was set to continue.