Concerns Bourne Market 'could be lost'
South Kesteven district councillor Helen Crawford (Con) is worried the planned refurbishment of Bourne Town Council may delay improvements to the Market and reduce footfall
A town market could be lost if improvements are not made, a councillor has warned.
South Kesteven district councillor Helen Crawford (Con) has voiced concerns that the planned refurbishment of Bourne Town Council may delay improvements to the Market and reduce footfall.
The district council has allocated £50,000 towards improving the markets in Grantham, Stamford and Bourne, including changes to the layouts and upgrading signs.
Coun Crawford, who sits on the Bourne West ward, said: “If we don’t work on Bourne now and we leave it, I fear that in eight months time, we won’t have a market. There will be nothing.
“We’ve lost the Saturday market now, the two that came. I think we’re down to three or four stalls. It isn’t a market. We need to be pushing to get people in there.”
Coun Crawford also said that the market needs more stalls to encourage people to visit the market.
She added: “Even if we had a couple of extra stalls, that would encourage more stall holders to come. Anything we can do just to extend it and even if it’s a slow process, you can say you’ve got something else to build on.”
She raised her concerns during a leisure overview and scrutiny committee meeting at South Kesteven District Council on Tuesday (July 15), when councillors were discussing the planned improvements to all three markets.
She added: “When we discussed this at the board, we said the funding should be split between the three markets but Bourne would get slightly less because it is smaller. I can’t see that it’s been a fair layout between the three markets and Bourne hasn’t got much out of the UKSPF funding.
“I’m very disappointed about this but we need to be working on Bourne, not leave it until the works have been completed on the old Town Hall because it will be gone then. Bourne won’t be a market town anymore and that will be a very sad day.”
Head of waste management and market services, Kay Boasman, said that the improvements to the town hall have delayed the planned regeneration of Bourne Market.
She added: “We have a whole suite of things for Bourne Market that we can print and do to market the market. Because of the uncertainty over where it’s going to be while the work is undertaken, we’ve probably not been as proactive as we could have been and we’ll look to address that.
“I think the issue moving forward is that while the works are being undertaken, we only have a small proportion of that car park and the current traders are adamant that they want to stay there because they have their regular customers coming there.
“We would struggle to get more traders into that space at the moment. There is a piece of work to improve that once the works are done.”