Council plans to install bollards to deter parking on grass verges in Newmarket

Town councillors have taken action to prevent parking on grass verges close to Newmarket town centre.

The wide area of verge between two slip roads running parallel to Exning Road either side of the Tannersfield Way junction will be lined with 100 bollards to keep vehicles off the grass and protect hundreds of bulbs which have been planted there.

The bollards will cost £7,845, of which just over £4,000 will be paid by the town council and the remainder by Suffolk County Council highways.

Members of the town council’s planning committee were told that once the finance was in place and an order put in, it was hoped the work would be carried out without delay.

Parking on the grass on that stretch of road has been a contentious issue for some years and on one part of the verge shrub beds were put in to dissuade motorists from using it.

Two years ago the council paid £20,000 for bulbs to be planted all around the town including St Mary’s Square, the memorial hall gardens, the Yellow Brick Road, Barbara Stradbroke Avenue and the area around the Queen’s statue

A winter to summer mix of bulbs was chosen to provide colour from February onwards at a cost of about £27 per square metre, the cost of the 200 square metres at Tannersfield Way coming to around £5,400.

Some of the flowers were lost before they had a chance to grow with cars and vans driving straight over the tender shoots in early spring and more damage was done when work vehicles parked on the verge when nowhere else was available while the apartments at the rear of the Aldi store were being built.

Councillors hope the bollards will mean residents and visitors will enjoy a colourful floral display next year on one of the main approaches to the town.