THE TEAM behind a project which aims to secure the long-term future of six of Ledbury’s landmark buildings have thanked residents for taking part in a public consultation seeking their views on proposals put forward.
Ledbury Places, a project launched by the Ledbury and District Civic Society, aims to plan the future options for the town’s Market House, the Barrett Building Institute, Town Council offices, the Heritage Centre, the Butchers Row Museum and Burgage Hall.
As well as securing their futures, the project is also examining ways of the buildings’ long term economic viability by putting them to the best possible use for the community in the future.
Proposals include the possible installation of a sympathetically designed lift system in the Market House building so everyone is able to have access to the first floor and the possibility of converting the first floor of the Heritage centre or part of the Town Council offices building into holiday letting accommodation.
The project team will now put forward final proposals forward and submit grant applications to help make the project become a reality.
More than 100 people took part in the consultation and Ledbury and District Civic Society chairman Alex Clive said he was delighted to see all kinds of people have their say.
“We are extremely pleased with the amount of feedback we’ve had while the feasibility study has been ongoing,” he said.
“We also did a presentation to 30 Year 8 pupils at John Masefield School early last week and the thoughts of the young people we saw were very interesting. They have provided us with a different perspective on certain things that we will look at.
“We are due to submit the grant applications by the end of March but this will not mean that everything we put forward will be what we eventually try to achieve, or that there will not be further opportunities for the local community to have their say.
“Submitting strong grant applications will be key to us planning what we can do in the Ledbury Places project moving forward because it goes without saying that without grants and funding none of what we hope to achieve will be possible.”
Visit www.ledburyplaces.org for more information about the project.
