Plans to move Crawley market still on hold due to lack of funds

During a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (March 30), Conservative leader Duncan Crow asked why the move had not been made, despite the infrastructure – such as electricity and water supplies – being put in place.

The question was aimed at Peter Smith, cabinet member for planning & economic development, who will be retiring from the council in May.

Mr Crow asked: “Do you feel that perhaps you could have done more to improve the market and get it in the place where we all wanted it to go?

“Do you have any words for your successor, whoever that might be, as to what we can do to get the market into a really good place so it helps to bring more people into the town centre?”

The council took over the running of the market in 2014, moving it from the High Street to Haslett Avenue West.

While the ongoing town centre regeneration programme saw Queensway adapted specifically for the market, it has stayed stuck on a corner of pavement between County Mall, McDonald’s and a taxi rank.

Mr Smith told the meeting that the council had received designs and a consultant’s report explaining how the market could be made bigger and better.

But he added that, despite the huge investment into the town centre, the one thing lacking now was money.

Mr Smith said: “We haven’t got enough money to actually roll out the new market in a proper way – and I’m not prepared to do it on a half-baked basis.

“We need to launch it properly.

“We need to find the right set of stalls to actually make it a success and make it fit into our own offer as Crawley so we continue to offer a very economically viable town centre – a place that is fantastic for our residents to visit and also encourages visitors from outside, from lesser towns, to come and shop and spend their money in Crawley.”

Reporting that footfall in Queens Square was returning to 2019, pre-Covid, levels, he said: “We have a future to look forward to [there] as a result of the work that we’ve done.

“I hope that my successor will be able to implement this new market in due course when we can find the funds.”

For the latest breaking news where you live in Sussex, follow us on Twitter @Sussex_World and like us on Facebook @SussexWorldUK