| Council plans to pedestrianise the Market Place and Wharf Street will go to a public vote again in the next couple of weeks, to see if there’s public appetite for extending the daytime car and bike ban in the town centre.
The controversial £840,000 redevelopment was postponed in May after angering traders, the disabled, cyclists, market stallholders and war veterans over the design, cost and timescale.
The main changes since May are that the council is offering to install traffic lights on the Bear Lane/Wharf Road junction to cope with the extra jams created by closing the “rat-run” – a move that has now been backed by the Newbury Town Centre Steering Group.
The questionnaire will also ask residents if they will visit Newbury more when the work is complete, to justify the expenditure, and whether there is public support for a fountain.
The steering group meets today to put the finishing touches to the questionnaire, but has deliberately left out a question on whether cycling should be banned, because it “might be better that way.”
Still, the proposal is to ban daytime deliveries for places like pubs and restaurants, the Furniture Shop, petfood shop and traders in the Arcade, between 10am and 6pm.
Better graphics have also been ordered for the charm offensive, to “demonstrate the quality of the scheme.”
No date has been set yet, but the questionnaire represents a policy shift, as people will be asked if they want a status quo.
In a nutshell, the proposals are:
Create an open, public space – allowing flexibility of use and opportunities for community activities and public events.
Refurbish the Market Place, with high quality, hardwearing, stain resistant paving.
Close the road leading from the Wharf area into Market Place to through traffic. This would extend pedestrianisation into Market Place from 10am to 6pm as per Northbrook and Bartholomew Streets.
Introduce a 20 mph safety zone outside of these hours.
Improve the traffic junction outside of the Post Office, resurfacing the road, moving the pedestrian crossing and removing a lot of the signage and railings around that junction.
Include 30-foot tall, semi-mature trees.
Provide new public seating and improved decorative lighting around the Market Place.
Upgrade the power supplies to the market stalls so that they are high capacity and are ‘hidden’ underground, rather than retain the existing black cabinets.
Include a new taxi queuing system and rank. | 
