8 March, 2004

The Haverhill Area Working Party met with business representatives from Haverhill Enterprise 2000 and the Haverhill Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday 3 March, to discuss the future development of Haverhill town centre.

The agenda included a presentation made by Suffolk County Council’s Environment and Transport department of the draft Haverhill Local Transport Action plan, outlining a programme of work to improve access to the town centre area for both pedestrians and vehicles. Many of these schemes have now been scheduled into the draft Haverhill Local Transport Action plan and the Working Party will comment on these when the plan becomes available in the very near future.

The second part of the meeting focused on retail issues in Haverhill town centre. Members of the Working Party informed business representatives that working towards the success of the town centre was its key priority and that they would be taking a detailed approach based on a site-by-site basis, towards solving some of the problems facing the town centre.

A review of these issues and next steps will be discussed by the Working Party and business representatives at their next meeting scheduled for April or May.

After the meeting, Cllr Jeff Stevens, Chair of the Haverhill Area Working Party said:

“I am pleased that the meeting with representatives of businesses in the town was fruitful and that we all share many similar views about the problems facing the town centre. The Working Party is taking a positive approach to tackling these problems and I am pleased that it is forging strong links with businesses and the organisations that help to promote the prosperity of the town.”

                                                                       ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

*      The Haverhill Area Working Party was set up in August 2003

*      The Working Party takes an overview of issues relating to the wellbeing and future development of Haverhill and makes recommendations to the Cabinet about actions needed to promote the town and its community. This links in with the objectives outlined in St Edmundsbury’s Corporate Plan covering the promotion and development of strong communities and ensuring Haverhill can compete successfully with other market towns.

*      It consists of seven members including two Cabinet portfolio holders: Cllr Jeremy Farthing (Environment) and Deputy Council Leader Cllr Jeff Stevens (Performance and Organisational Development). The other members are Cllrs Geoffrey Rushbrook, Adam Whittaker, Gerry Kiernan, Maggie Lee and Derek Redhead.