Bandstand to stay

Town centre traders are celebrating after it was decided a bandstand earmarked for removal will stay.
NEW PLAN Market Place will still have two bandstands.NEW PLAN Market Place will still have two bandstands.
NEW PLAN Market Place will still have two bandstands.

Kirklees Council has bowed to public pressure and altered some of its plans to declutter the town centre.

Traders and residents reacted with anger when it was announced one of the two bandstands in Market Place was due to be taken down. It was part of a £60,000 plan to make the town centre more attractive and make more space for events.

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Keith Brett, who owns the mobile Cappuccino Bar, based in Market Place twice a week, said his customers had criticised the move “without exception”.

But Coun Paul Kane (Lab, Dews East), and chairman of Dewsbury regeneration board, said the council had listened to the public and decided to keep both structures.

Mr Brett said: “It’s great news for my customers, people who come to the town centre and the shops. We are over the moon.”

Bollards, planting areas and other street furniture is being removed and the work is due to be complete before the annual Spirit event on April 12. Coun Kane also stressed that no benches were being removed from the area – they are simply being rearranged by the council’s landscape architect.

“We have listened to the public and the fact that they use it,” Coun Kane said.

He hopes that any cash saved from the move will be used to repair the bandstand’s broken glazing.