A nice warm covered market? Yes, please

I WAS intrigued by the proposal drawn up by a trio of local architects for a covered market, with budget hotel rooms overhead, on the site of the bus station.

It’s the kind of imaginative thinking that could give Salisbury a new lease of life.

Which probably means it’s doomed, and we’ll get another block of ‘sympathetically designed’ flats.

I don’t know whether or not the current market traders would welcome an opportunity to move to a cosy, all-weather home.

I realise that some of them have invested a lot of money to be where they are right now.

As an occasional customer, however, I know I’m less likely to buy my veg in the Market Place when it’s freezing and the wind is whipping round my ankles – ie most of the time.

Which is why I’ve always had reservations about a great deal of public money being invested in the whole ‘café culture’ makeover scheme. Lovely when the sun shines – but how often is that?

Anyway, even if our regular stallholders aren’t interested, a covered market could include spaces to rent to all manner of craftspeople and creative start-up businesses that can’t afford our shops.

Just look at the way the excellent Vintage Quarter is attracting a new breed of customer to Wilton shopping village.

I dropped in to the Easter Monday vintage fair there, and the place was buzzing despite the cold.

The girl in the tearoom (lovely carrot cake, by the way) said they’d prepared for a busy day and still been run off their feet. They’d had ten coachloads of visitors, and the car park was packed.

In my opinion, the shopping village was looking a little jaded and old-fashioned a few months ago, and I wouldn’t have chosen to shop there.

But broadening the mix with vintage and Art Deco has certainly made it a happy hunting ground for me.

Which just leaves one question.

If our shivering stallholders did fancy a move indoors, what would happen to the super whizz-bang new-look Market Place then?

Disabled parking, anyone?