Warning over plan for town centre
ASHBOURNE Town Council has been warned to step forward with caution with their plans to take over the management of what could soon become a pedestrianised market place in the town centre.
Last month plans were unveiled to radically reduce the parking area on the historic, listed cobbled square and to allow space for a “community area” with tables, chairs and an entertainment space.
Speaking at last week’s meeting of Ashbourne Town Council, Councillor Sue Bull, who also sits on Derbyshire Dales District Council for Ashbourne North, advised members to be careful of the number of responsibilities they took on as they drilled into the detail of how the new plans would work, and what they would need to do on a day-today basis.
Referring to a proposal put before councillors by the district council, she said: “I have had a read through it. I’m just a bit wary of how much they’re trying to put over for the town council to be taking on board.
“A lot of this is about licenses in the area and because the government brought in the issue of pavement licenses, which has got to be issued by district, that will be in their control.
“But if you’re taking the license on of the whole area, how do you expect you will be in control? Because you will be having to sort out the licenses for the overspill of people encroaching on an area that is licensed to the town council and not the district. It might be quite peculiar.
“I’m not trying to put a damp squib on it. Along with Councillor Lees I’ve been wanting to get that back from being a car park and that’s why we’ve worked with Matlock on this design.
“But please read through very carefully what the district is trying to push over and what you will be implicated in having to control.
“Because if the surrounding premises decide they want to move the furniture, and the licensed premises want to use them as well, then who’s going to control it?”
Derbyshire Dales District Council commissioned a specialist firm to design what could become the new layout for the market place, and it includes a perimeter marked out with planters, a new space for the Christmas tree, and then a large cluster of tables and chairs to make up a communal seating area.
When the plans were first discussed in public last week, town councillors welcomed the scheme and the opportunity to take back control of the square, which has been used almost exclusively for parking since the Thursday and Saturday markets began to decline.
Now that the h market kt h has been moved to Civic Square, the district council has previously mooted the idea of redesigning the layout of the spaces and remarking the outlines - but this latest idea will see the number of spaces reduced to allow for just two rows alongside the road, including two disabled spaces.
The plans, and proposed responsibilities, will now be discussed by Ashbourne Town Council at a meeting on Tuesday, November 10 at 7pm.