A WAITING room and public toilets at Yeovil Bus Station will be reinstated as work continues ahead of demolition work in the new year.
Somerset Council has confirmed work is underway ahead of the demolition of Glovers Walk shopping centre as part of a major town-centre redevelopment project.
Contractors are disconnecting utilities and removing hazardous materials like asbestos from the vacant buildings, the council said, with work beginning in 2025 to avoid disruption over the festive period.
Meanwhile, the council said a passenger waiting room and accessible public toilets will be reinstated at Yeovil Bus Station as the work continues.
“This is thanks to work with the adjacent building owners and tenants, including bus station operators First Bus and South West Coaches,” a spokesperson said.
The empty Glovers Walk shopping centre was bought by the council using Future High Streets Funding (FHSF), with plans to redevelop the site as the final phase of the Refresh programme in Yeovil town centre.
The deadline for spending the FHSF March 31 next year, so the demolition needs to happen in the coming months.
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Elsewhere, community engagement work is being carried out by two local groups – Love Yeovil and Yeovil Art Space – to gain views and ideas from residents about how best to use the site in the short-term and as part of longer-term plans.
“Due to the time constraints of the FHSF funding, there is an unavoidable gap between the demolition and the delivery of a longer-term development,” the spokesperson went on.
“The community consultation will help support the process of developing ideas for ‘meanwhile’ uses for the space during this period, as well as the longer-term plans.”
Councillor Mike Rigby, lead member for economic development, planning and assets, said: “Yeovil Refresh represents major investment in the town and the Glovers Walk site an exciting blank canvas at its heart.
“We don’t want to tell people what should go there, we want to know what local people, businesses and communities of Yeovil want to see – in the long-term and in that shorter meanwhile period.
“Most people would agree that Yeovil deserves better than it has at the moment, and this project is all about delivering that.”
Once a longer-term plan for the site has been agreed, Somerset Council will be seeking a development partner to deliver it, he added.
Planners need to look at Bracknell Town Centre, Berkshire. It was the 1960/70 shopping centre, ghastly.
About 10 years ago the whole area was completely and quickly demolished.
HOWEVER all local towns and residents already knew exactly what was planned, had received layouts, list of potential stores and costings.
We (I lived there then) were excited about it and thrilled when there was only a few months delay. It went exactly to plan and only took a couple of years to build. It is now THE shopping precinct to visit, far more popular than Reading, Windsor, Ascot, Maidenhead.
THATs how it SHOULD be done …..
– it IS possible to create a beautiful town – with Planning