COLCHESTER’S market has undergone a £100,000 overhaul and is set to re-open in the High Street in a matter of weeks.

It will be the first time the market has been in the High Street in a generation.

There will be 54 stalls set in the laybys in High Street between Head Street and Colchester Town Hall every Friday and Saturday.

The gazebo-style market stalls will no longer have to rely on noisy generators as electrics will be installed in black bollards which are placed at each of the High Street pedestrian crossings.

All stallholders have been asked to reapply for their market licence.

Cassandra Clements, Colchester Council’s zone group manager, said: “For the first time in a long time, we are going to give people a shopping experience.

“We have loyal customers and want to showpeople howmuch you can get at the market.”

Mrs Clements added, in its current guise, the market is “in two separate sections”, so the plan has long been to bring it all together on the south side of the High Street – the opposite side to the town hall.

Officers brought in market specialists, Quarterbridge, a consultancy firm based in West Stockwell Street to help with the plans. The company is a recognised for helping to turn around under-performing markets.

Mrs Clements added each trader has been consulted and there has been overwhelming support for the High Street move.

No exact date has been set, but it is hoped the market’s move will take place in either late March or early April.

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