Public consultation will be held during the design period, while feasibility studies will be held into the state of the Buttermarket and the fabric of surrounding buildings at the same time.
While the project may need planning permission, with a major food and drink input to the scheme there is obvious potential for developing what was the old City Guildhall above the existing Buttermarket ‘trading floor’ into a glass-fronted restaurant - where customers can survey the suppliers of the ingredients on their plates as they toil below.
Whatever ends up on the menu, much of it will be created from locally-sourced foods and served alongside a choice of county or borders-made drinks.
“You could say that we are re-carpeting the city throughout - and that the first stage, at the Buttermarket, we will be using top grade Wilton,” said Geoff Hughes.
A questionnaire will be available from stalls within the Buttermarket; the libraries within the city and market towns; the mobile library and tourist information centres.
There will also be an online questionnaire available on the council website.
Visit the site, at www.herefordshire.gov.uk and click the “your views on Hereford Buttermarket” link in the spotlight box.
A re-born Buttermarket and the Grid’s new retail quarter on the site of Hereford’s existing livestock are seen hand-in-hand with the city’s future as a regional retail attraction.
Visitors to the one will have a natural inclination to explore the other as part of a linked traditional and new city.
Last week the council’s cabinet ticked the box for final talks with Grid developers Stanhope, leading to a signed agreement for the first phase retail quarter to start in 2011 with a multi-screen cinema and a range of high-quality, “household name stores” on the cards.
Keen to stress the connection between the city’s historic heart and an extended city centre, Councillor Blackshaw maintains “the blending of old and new results in a stronger single ingenuity for Hereford.”
The 12.5 acre retail site includes 9.9 acres of council-owned land and, as a condition of the development agreement, Stanhope will fund the acquisition of any further land and property needed to bring the Grid together.
A planning application for phase 1 is expected to be made by Stanhope next summer.
Exclusive by Colin Osborne
