Christmas parking at York Road Market site
Published Tuesday 9th November 10 in Council - news and information releases news
Attention all shoppers! Parking in Southend town centre in the run up to Christmas and the January sales is about to become a whole lot more convenient.
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has listened to its residents and traders and is making the site of the former York Road Market available as a temporary car park over the Christmas shopping and January sales period.
Council contractors are currently hard surfacing the former market site and erecting boundary fences in preparation.
It is hoped that the car park, which will be able to accommodate around 100 vehicles, will be open for use in the first week of December.
Pay and display machines are currently being installed on the site, which will be accessed from a new entrance in Baltic Avenue next to the Tylers Avenue car park.
It will then be handed over to market operators Geraud UK in time for an Easter opening of a new temporary surface market comprising of around 30 stalls.
Geraud, the largest market operator in Europe , works alongside 300 Local Authorities and manages over 1,300 markets each week.
It will initially operate a general market on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with the possibility of a specialist market on Sundays, although this will depend on demand levels.
The Council is currently looking at alternative uses for the site on days when it is not being used for market purposes.
Corporate Director of Support Services, Sally Holland, said: "Using the former York Road Market site in this way will provide much needed extra parking capacity for Christmas and during the January sales.
"The temporary car park will cease to operate in February but during part of that month it will be used for the Chinese New Year celebrations.
"After that the site will be handed over to Geraud and we look forward to seeing market traders operating in the area again from Easter onwards."