December 2006 Construction begins! Construction work on the new Cattle Market development officially began on 1 December and the scheme is expected to be up and running by early 2009. Thanks for your patience with any upheaval during the building phase – it will all be worth it in the end! Park and ride Nearly 2000 people used St Edmundsbury Borough Council's park and ride service to travel to the 2006 Christmas Fayre, which helped keep spaces free in the town’s car parks. The park and ride service will run every Saturday until Christmas. Charges are just £1.50 per car (so if you get two or more people in your car it will work out even cheaper than our cheapest car park!) and buses will run every 15 minutes. The park and ride service will run from Denny’s and Sealey's, on Moreton Hall, and WestSuffolkCollege, in Out Risbygate, from 10am to 6pm each Saturday. Late night shopping Don’t forget the shops are open until 9pm on Thursdays until Christmas. | Hop and shop Bury St Edmunds Town Council is operating a free Christmas shuttle service to carry shoppers from the town’s car parks right into the shopping centre on Saturdays before Christmas. Shuttle buses run every 30 minutes between 10am and 4pm and pick up passengers from the Bus Station, Ram Meadow or Parkway car parks. They drop off behind Boots or at Angel Hill. For more information visit www.burystedmunds-tc.gov.uk Message system helps parking Ten Variable Message Signs (VMS) have been introduced around the town on the approach to car parks. They tell motorists whether the car park is full or has space available so you can find the best place to park. The VMS cost £250,000 to install and was funded by £200,000 from Suffolk County Council’s on-street parking fund, following a successful bid from St Edmundsbury. The remaining £50,000 has come from Cattle Market developers Centros Miller. Even though the town is getting busier in the run up to Christmas, spaces are still available across the majority of car parks in town thanks to a constant turnover. The advice is to be flexible about where you park and, by using the park and ride and the VMS, you’ll find your Christmas shopping and parking easier than ever! |
Markets Don’t forget to use your local market for all the bits and pieces you need this Christmas and remember there will also be a market held on Sunday 17 December. Cameron Findlay, St Edmundsbury’s Market Manager, says: “It is widely acknowledged that we have one of the best markets in the country and for it to stay the best it has to naturally evolve to keep satisfying its customers’ needs.” That means stalls will come and go or diversify their wares to meet demand and changing tastes. The stallholders who are most reactive to their customers’ expectations are those who will continue to flourish. Cameron adds: “We already do what we can to promote the market, but we would like to hear from anyone who has ideas for promotion and positive actions for the future to keep our market thriving.” People can contact Cameron with ideas by email at: cameron.findlay@stedsbc.gov.uk Borough council Christmas closures The Borough Offices will close for Christmas at 4pm on Friday 22 December and will re-open at 9am on Tuesday 2 January. The emergency out-of-hours phone number is 01284 763252. | Christmas rubbish and recycling Details of Christmas bin collections are now on the St Edmundsbury website at www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk Click on ‘waste management’ under the ‘key services’ section on the home page and then ‘bank holiday bin collections’ on the left hand menu. Don’t forget to try to recycle all you can this Christmas. Non-metallic wrapping paper and cardboard or plastic packaging can go in your blue bin (but not polystyrene, plastic bags or film). Christmas greenery and real Christmas trees can be put in your brown bin (but your tree must be chopped up and not left beside the bin). Glass can go to your local recycling bank. Use the household waste sites at Rougham or Ingham for dead batteries, trees you don’t chop up or larger items. We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous new year! |
