Overnight work underway

THORNBURY'S Rock Street car park is being closed overnight while resurfacing work is completed.

South Gloucestershire Council said the closures, from 8pm-6am, would be finished by the end of the first week in May.

Work started last month on the controversial permanent changes to Thornbury High Street, with 'low level' fencing installed.

In an update on the works, the council said: "Our team working on the High Street are working twilight shifts, 6pm-2am Monday to Friday, to minimise the impact on businesses and residents. "We recognise that there will be some disruption, noise and vibrations and we will minimise this as far as is reasonably practicable and schedule noisier work earlier in the shift.

"We have been in conversation with the local community, businesses and our Equality and Accessibility group to address any concerns when they have been raised with us.

"Following feedback, we have installed additional access points with ramps to allow people to park in Blue Badge bays and access the pavement more easily.

"Work is progressing well in Rock Street car park. Half the car park has been resurfaced and relined, creating larger parking bays.

"We have moved the Blue Badge parking bays closer to the crossing into the St Mary Centre and have installed the power supply for electric vehicle charge points."

The council is inviting people with questions or suggestions on the works to contact the Thornbury Project Team at highstreets@ southglos.gov.uk.

"Also, it’s the main car park for the St Mary Centre, and in there is the NHS walk-in centre.

“The Rock Street car park is down to half [capacity].

"To also not have Rock Street car park, it will cause chaos, I think, in Thornbury.

"It will affect local businesses paying business rates. I don’t think the market will be very successful if nobody can park anywhere.”

The Rock Street car park is being redeveloped by the council alongside the major changes to the High Street. Works are scheduled to be completed there in May, while the works to the High Street are expected to last another 10 months.

Gareth O’Sullivan, managing director of Green Top Events, said: "We’ve got a lot of small businesses who are relying on this market.

"We’ve cut the numbers back so we don’t take up as much parking.

"We tend to get 30 to 40 traders but we’ve cut this down to 22 for the first one.

"The need for the market is there, and residents and customers are constantly messaging us - they want us back twice a month again.

"Hopefully once the High Street is done we can look at that.

"If we stopped the market altogether, it would be so hard to build it back up.

“We need the market to continue. It’s going to be one Saturday a month, between 7am for set up until 4.30pm once we’re gone.

"I can understand that you’re going to lose car parking spots, but at the same time, to lose the market altogether, I think would be a lot worse. A lot of small independent businesses are relying on this market.”

By Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporting Service