Council to spend £72k on new bins and planters for Newmarket High Street

Newmarket High Street is set for a facelift with new bins and planters set to be installed next year.

On Monday, town councillors agreed to spend £72,000 on 16 new black bin casings to house litter wheelie bins and 29 new planters.

Town mayor Cllr Philippa Winter told members of the town’s community services committee on Monday: “We have had many negative comments about the bins which are really tatty and we are not going to wait any longer. We have been thinking about this for a long time and now is the time to do it as we have the money.”

The town council will be paying £57,000 towards the cost of the project with £15,000 from a town centre fund created by West Suffolk Council using cash from the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF) set up to help improve town centres and high streets.

The funding available to West Suffolk Council in the current tax year is £192,000 and Cllr Kevin Yarrow questioned the relatively small grant the town council was receiving.

“We need to make sure we get our share,” he said.

Town clerk Cathy Whitaker said the grant was the maximum the council was told it could apply for.

Councillors were told the existing bins, which bear a racing motif based on the late Lester Piggott riding Sir Ivor, were severely corroded and that the trees in the planters were not thriving because they had become root-bound.

A report said the planters would not be easy to remove due to the way the trees, which belong to Newmarket BID, had originally been secured.

West Suffolk Council would be helping with the installation of the new ones.

At the same meeting councillors also agreed to put up banners publicising the council’s events on eight streetlighting columns at the four main entrances to the town in the High Street, Fordham Road, Exning Road and Bury Road.

The banners will be similar to those which have been used by Newmarket Racecourses for around 10 years to publicise race meeting and other events and the council plans to use its banners to promote its own events including summer entertainment, the carnival and Christmas attractions.

They would also be available to other town partners like Newmarket BID, the racing museum and Discover Newmarket to use for a fee to offset installation costs.

Committee members agreed to spend £2,200 on the brackets for the banners.