WESTBURY Town Council has lodged an objection to the proposed weekly town centre market because it believes plans submitted to Wiltshire Council are impractical.
At a meeting of the council’s Highways, Planning and Development Committee on Monday 7th September the members agreed that whilst it welcomed the idea of a market in principle, the proposed siting of the stalls uses up all the Market Place’s car parking facilities, making it unsuitable.
Their concern was that using up all of the parking bays, particularly the short term bays, would damage trade for other retailers in the town. The resolution passed invited the applicants to submit another plan that didn’t use up all the parking bays but stuck to the paved areas in the square.
Cllr Russell Hawker said of the plans, “This was a clumsy application which showed they hadn’t bothered to consult the town council and hadn’t thought about how the Market Place needs to function.”
However the decision to approve the plans still resides with Wiltshire Council, the town council can only comment on the application.
Under the proposed plans, submitted by Northacre Trading Company, a Thursday market would close traffic to the Market Place between 8.00am – 4.00pm, while the market, with more than 20 stalls, would trade between 8.00am – 3.00pm.
Laurence Williams, of Northacre Trading Company, said that he was convinced the market would still go ahead.
He said, “As far as I’m concerned it’s happening. I’m determined it will go ahead. I’m dealing directly with Wiltshire Council and they haven’t raised any problems. There will always be someone who objects about something but [Wiltshire] council haven’t come to me with any problems at all.”
Laurence added that Northacre Trading is also in discussion with two other Wiltshire towns regarding bringing them markets, and hope to make an announcement about these developments soon.
