Former mayor vows to continue fight for Hungerford town centre piazza plans

PLANS for a Continental-style, town centre piazza were branded a “dead duck” – but, hark, was that a quack?

The project’s initial champion, former Hungerford mayor Martin Crane, suggested this week that rumours of its demise may, as the saying goes, have been greatly exaggerated.

At this month’s full town council meeting, councillors voted by a majority to withdraw support from the town centre steering group (TCSG) which had been tasked with drawing up a blueprint.

Current mayor Helen Simpson had told colleagues: “Despite our very best efforts, it has become almost impossible to move forward… the TCSG has been unable to work together without disagreement.

“Living in the town for as long as I have, I feel residents would be more interested in the grass being cut, dog poo bins remaining, and the health and well-being of residents being a higher priority than a future ambition, which may or may not be delivered for which there is currently no funding.”

A traders’ lobby had vehemently opposed any project which would result in the loss of prized parking spaces.

Town chamber of commerce chairwoman Karen Salmon said that, whatever the outcome of the proposal, “on behalf of members, we’ll be withdrawing from the strategy committee”.

After the vote, Hungerford Arcade owner Adrian Gilmour branded the piazza project a “dead duck”.

The idea was first mooted by Mr Crane, who said in 2021: “No change is not an option.”

Mr Crane, who served as town mayor from 2011 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2017, said he believed the town must embrace major change in order to thrive in future.

In a letter to district councillors, fellow town councillors and the Town & Manor of Hungerford at the time, he suggested a “significant new look and focal point for a pedestrian area”.

He envisaged that this would stretch from a wide public area, or piazza, in front of the Town Hall and would encompass the service road on which the weekly market is held.

Mr Crane added: “The complete redesign of the High Street will require careful but imaginative planning to ensure that upon completion, it provides a welcoming landscape for residents and visitors alike.”

At this month’s full town council meeting councillor James Cole, who chaired the TCSG, voted to oppose the town council’s withdrawal of support.

He said: “High Streets are dying; the problem’s not going away.”

He said a town square “remains a sensible idea” and that it was “anti-democratic to ignore the wishes of the town as a result of the demands of a very small group of quite heavily vested interests”.

This week Mr Crane told the Newbury Weekly News: “I will be joining forces with James Cole to continue the fight.”

See next week’s NWN for a more detailed update.