Council scraps market features to save money

A 12-metre beacon which marks the market as a "'key destination" is among features being shelved

Several features of the multi-million-pound improvements to Bilston Market are set to be scrapped to save money.

City of Wolverhampton Council has submitted its own planning application making a number of changes to its delayed and over budget improvements to Bilston's outdoor market.

The council has agreed a further £2.5m for the new market which sees the total cost rise by more than a third from £6.4m to £8.9m.

A proposed 12-metre "beacon" and a number of benches and planters have been removed from the market's designs and plans for solar panels and new signs and entrances have also been scrapped.

Some pavements, thoroughfares and car parks would also be cleaned and repaired rather than resurfaced.

Once completed, it will give traders and customers better access, a new canopy, new toilets, stall improvements and upgraded public spaces.

The town's outdoor market stalls were re-located last October for the then proposed year-long work to build a replacement.

However, the work to the 200-year-old market is now not expected to be finished until June 2026, which is eight months later than planned.

The council's planning application said: "The development has been tendered and construction cost has exceeded allowable budget.

"Therefore, an extensive value engineering process has resulted in several items to be altered, omitted, [and] postponed from the granted development."

Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal, cabinet member for resident services at the Labour-run local authority, said: "It is an absolute priority for us, and the main works are progressing well to deliver for our traders and the people of Bilston.

"Prior to works getting under way, surveys revealed far more challenging ground conditions at the site than we had anticipated, so we have had to re-engineer and adjust parts of the project – but we are not compromising on our ambition to develop the absolute best market in the West Midlands."

The long delay to the work has hit traders, with the city council cutting rent by a quarter for more than 10 months to support them during the work.

The decision to re-locate the town's outdoor market has also hit trade at its indoor market with stallholders complaining of a drop in footfall.

The council said it was spending £15,000 on events and activities in and around the indoor market to help attract more people during the work.

And Bilston's outdoor market relocated to the town's high street last October to allow for work on the new facility to start.

The council said the surveys, that could only be carried out once the stalls had moved, found "poor" ground conditions that resulted in the re-design to carry out the works as planned.

This had also resulted in a further £2.5m being set aside and delay to the start of the work on the new market, the council added.