Former March bank to be demolished for town regeneration

The Barclays site on Broad Street in March has been vacant since 2021

A former bank building is to be demolished to make way for new homes and businesses, a council said.

Fenland District Council bought the Barclays building on Broad Street, March, for £750,000, using some of the money it was awarded through the government's Future High Streets Fund.

A council representative said the project was a "fantastic opportunity" to enhance the town.

The demolition will happen after other improvements on the road are complete.

The council was awarded £6.4m from the High Streets fund in 2021, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Initially, that money - as well as £4.2m from Cambridgeshire County Council and £2m from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority - was earmarked for five regeneration projects in March.

They were upgrading Broad Street and integrating the Riverside areas into it, plus renovating the Market Place and Acre Road and bringing vacant shops in the town back into use.

However, the Acre Road upgrades, which sought to turn the area into an "attractive, multi-use development", were "deemed unviable following preliminary work", the council said. 

The money spent on the former bank, which has been empty since 2021, is part of the £1.7m that would have been allocated to those upgrades. 

Conservative councillor Steve Count, who is part of the authority's Future High Streets Fund group, said purchasing the building was a "fantastic opportunity" for the town. 

"Now the building has been secured it won't fall into further disrepair, and we'll be able to make the most of the riverside setting and enhance the town centre for years to come," he said.