Town centre once branded ‘ugly & uninspiring' to undergo £8m transformation and be made ‘fit for 21st century'
A MAJOR town centre once branded "ugly and uninspiring" is to undergo a huge £8 million transformation.
The plans are a bid to make the centre "fit for the 21st century" with work expected to be completed by the end of next year.
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The final designs for two major schemes have been drawn up to introduce sweeping changes to Leicester city centre, reports Leicestershire Live.
Years in the making, the two projects will focus on Leicester Market and a link between Market Place and Cank Street respectively.
The Leicester Market scheme is on track to be completed by the end of 2026 while work could get underway on the Cank Street Link in the summer.
The market proposals were first introduced in 2022 and have undergone a series of changes since then.
The original market scheme was put on hold while Leicester City Council mulled turning it into an events space.
But this provoked a furious backlash from traders when they were told they may not be allowed to return.
As a result, new plans were proposed to use the square as a shared space for both events and the market in October 2024.
The new plans proposed a new 48-stall market site created next to the existing food hall which could be fully dismantled if the site was needed for an event.
This went to a public consultation, launched by Leicester City Council, where 60 per cent of 1,667 respondents supported the proposals.
The changes are much needed with some residents bemoaning the state of the centre in recent months.
A recent Reddit post on the Leicester subreddit page asked residents for their thoughts on moving to the city from London.
Many disparaged the centre with one user saying "the city centre is largely quite ugly" with others saying it was "horrible" and "dreadful".
One user recommended they "avoid" the city centre citing "poor hygiene" while another added the centre was "mostly ugly and uninspiring".
But many admitted the centre had problems like any city and loved calling Leicester home.
In addition to the market plans, the second scheme is known as the Cank Street Link and will see a new pathway between Green Dragon Square and the St. Martins area.
This will see a number of Leicester City Council-owned buildings demolished and others refurbished with plans to rent them out.
Revealed in December 2023, the plans will also see a new shopping area in place of the demolished buildings.
This space could see units for creative and artisan start ups, bespoke and higher end retail offers and street food style food and beverage.
Final designs for both schemes are being prepared with Leicester City Council saying their teams are "busy" wrapping up the plans.
They will then be submitted to the council's planning department for approval.
For the market scheme, the planning applications will be submitted in two phases, according to a council spokeswoman.
The public square space, including tree planting, seating, lighting and landscaping will comprise the first phase with plans to submit this at the end of next week.
Whereas the second phase requires "further work", according to the spokeswoman with an application expected later in the summer.
She added that the regeneration of the market is still on track to be completed by the end of next year.
A planning application for the Cank Street Link Scheme, dubbed "essential infrastructure", is being prepared.
This includes power supply and waste management developments with the spokeswoman adding: "Subject to final confirmation of costs, works could start later this summer".
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