Neighbourhood plan to highlight Rasen’s ‘grot spots’

Earlier this year, Market Rasen Town Council announced a ‘neighbourhood concept plan’ would be developed over the coming year - and it would be the ‘key to the success’ of the town.

Speaking at September’s town council meeting, Deputy Mayor Steve Bunney said: “Part of the neighbourhood planning is to find those areas which need to be improved.

“If we could start making a list, we could add to this if there’s other buildings.

“We’ve got to start thinking about what we want to do with these empty buildings.

“There are monies around.

“We need to say ‘these are the eyesores which put people off’.

“The high street is lacking a little bit.

“The first thing you see when you come through is an empty bank.”

Coun Jo Pilley said: “And everyone stops there [next to the vacant bank], at the traffic lights.

Coun Bunney told the meeting Market Rasen’s CLIP learning centre had already said it would be willing to work on improving the appearance of the town’s John Street Car Park.

And he said a Neighbourhood Plan would make it ‘easier’ for the town to win grant funding as it could be ‘brought in’ to ‘make [a] case’.

Speaking at Market Rasen’s Annual Town Meeting in April, Coun Bunney outlined to residents why the town needed a neighbourhood concept plan - and what it would involve.

He said the neighbourhood plan would be supported by the town council, but that the lead organisation would be the Town Partnership.

Coun Bunney - who is chairman of the Town Partnership - told the Annual Town Meeting: “We’ve got to decide what the town needs from the amount of houses to the infrastructure it needs.

“I’m told there’s not enough room at the doctor’s.

“It might say ‘you need a new primary school’... or you might even need a swimming pool.

“Getting that information so we can get the infrastructure right.”

Coun Bunney said the Partnership would look at neighbourhood plans that have been done elsewhere, such as Caistor, as an example of how to do it.

The town council will be carrying out the administration work for the neighbourhood plan, on behalf of the Town Partnership.