‘Beautification’ of Bury St Edmunds street might just cost too much

Councillors clashed this week over what should be done in response to a request to ‘beautify’ an area of Bury St Edmunds.

St Edmundsbury’s Bury area working party was told on Tuesday of the Bury Society’s concern for the appearance of Skinner Street, including the need to replace or remove its bins.

Council officer Mark Walsh told members that consideration had been given to the use of a ‘stop-up’ area in the middle of the road, changing to sacks, more uniform-looking smaller bins or sharing bins between businesses – but none were without problems.

“It’s a service road, get over it,” said Cllr Paul Farmer.

“I think we shouldn’t ‘get over it’. I think people would be behind improving Skinner Street so it’s attractive to walk down,” said Cllr David Nettleton.

“Is this a key issue for our Council Tax payers, asked Cllr Sarah Stamp,” cautioning over giving ‘preferential treatment’ to a few businesses.

Cllr Joanna Rayner said the ‘time and effort’ already spent on the issue was ‘really disproportionate for just one street in the town’, while Cllr Sarah Mildmay-White suggested using hanging baskets to enable ‘beautification’ of the first floor instead of the ground floor.

Cllr Robert Everitt concluded: “It does seem a shame we can’t find a way around this but I agree the cost implications of what we’re trying to achieve may well outweigh the benefit of looking at beautiful Tudor buildings.”

What do you think of Skinner Street? Would you like to see it ‘beautified’?