| Issue 14 23 May 2005 Filling the town with flowers The centre of Bury St Edmunds will be packed with colours - and flavours - over the bank holiday weekend. While the usual provisions market takes place on Saturday, it will be flowers and stalls selling continental food and products which will take centre stage on Sunday 29 and Monday 30 May, from 10am to 4pm each day. The Bury St Edmunds Flower and Continental Market gets more popular every year - the streets are packed with stalls selling a huge range of plants and flowers from budding begonias for summer beds to specialist shrubs for those who like a challenge in their gardens. Joining the flower stalls will be the continental market, with its cheeses, meats, bread and all sorts of other goodies. Buttermarket, Cornhill and the top of Abbeygate Street will be closed to traffic on the Sunday and Monday from 7am to 6pm. The event is organised by the Town Centre Management group, which is funded by St Edmundsbury and local businesses. ****************************************************** Making the link work There has been some debate recently about when, or even whether, the Market Thoroughfare link between Cornhill and St Andrews Street South will be improved. St Edmundsbury has two distinct roles concerning this development. One is a landowner (and the Cattle Market Redevelopment Working Party looks after the council's, and therefore Council Tax payers', interests on the landowning side). Then there's the role as Local Planning Authority, represented by St Edmundsbury's Development Control Committee. As the planning authority St Edmundsbury can grant permission to build - but it cannot guarantee that building will go ahead. If someone puts in an application for a conservatory on their house, for | example, the Development Control Committee can give legal permission, providing it complies with all the relevant planning laws. But the committee cannot force the applicant to actually build the conservatory - that's up to the applicant. BUT - and it's a big BUT - as a major landowner St Edmundsbury does have considerable clout when it comes to getting things done - including the possible use of Compulsory Purchase Orders to get things moving. As landowner, St Edmundsbury is working closely with our developer partner, Centros Miller, to make sure the improvement happens. Cattle Market Redevelopment Working Party Chairman, Cllr Andrew Varley, has said: "The development of Market Thoroughfare is vital and I see no reason to doubt its realisation." As for timing, the link needs to be sorted after the Cattle Market is completed because the shops trading around Market Thoroughfare need to be relocated (some may go in to the new development) before work on it can start. It's also worth remembering that if completed before the Cattle Market it would simply "link" to a building site for two years, so few people would use it. And Market Thoroughfare is only one of half-a-dozen links - Brentgovel Street, Woolworth's, Boots, Central Walk and Woolhall Street are all important and very well-used links now. They will become even more used once development is complete - because of its position, Central Walk, for example, will probably be the most likely route for people going to and from Debenhams. ******************************************** Newsletter: This newsletter is from St Edmundsbury Borough Council, owner of the Cattle Market redevelopment site. Please forward it to anyone you think may be interested in the topic or contact me if you wish to be taken off the distribution list: marianne.hulland@stedsbc.gov.uk |
