Council paves the way for £2.5m makeover

The immediate area round the Grade I listed Market Cross in Saturday Market (pictured) will be pedestrianised, cobbles taken up and replaced with concrete block paving, and Yorkstone pavements widened. Parking spaces for cars will be reduced by nearly 40 to 120 on the Beverley marketplace, which is the most heavily used in the area, as part of work due to start at the end of January.

Ben Gardiner, chairman of Beverley and District Chamber of Trade said: “We’d welcome the renovations and we are delighted with the result of the work they have already done to North Bar Within. We appreciate the council not starting in November when they originally planned because of the adverse effects on Christmas trading.”

Prof Barbara English, from Beverley Civic Society, said the plans looked good - and hopes the council will avoid the temptation to install “bollards, security cameras and a great deal of yellow and white paint” once the work is done. She said: “It will tidy up a place that has become very messy. The pavements are quite dangerous because some of them are so uneven.”

East Riding Council leader Steve Parnaby said work resurfacing of neighbouring streets had a positive response, adding: “Mostly the marketplace is full of cars and people and when you look at it when it is empty it is not very attractive. There’s patches all over, standing water all over the place.

“When we are finished we will have the best pavements and paved areas in any market town in the north of England.”

The council says the work will be planned to minimise disruption and there will be access to shops at all times. The work will take almost a year.

More consultation will take place with traders and with the public before the plans are finalised.