Proposals to allow pop-up stalls to be put up in a city’s landmark square will be the subject of a public consultation first, councillors have decided.
Milton Keynes Development Partnership (MKDP) is waiting for MK Council’s final decision on whether to permit stalls at Station Square before submitting a planning application to make wholesale changes, a committee heard.
“I have two concerns,” said Cllr Paul Williams (Lab, Central MK). “Businesses will need to be consulted. And we need to deal with the litter situation better than we do at the moment.
“Station Square is under-utilised and there is a lot more we can be doing to make the area more attractive, and a destination.”
Cllr Amanda Marlow, a Conservative councillor whose Loughton & Shenley ward borders on the square, was concerned about litter and rats.
“It’s an incredibly windy area,” she told Wednesday’s meeting of Milton Keynes Council’s regulatory committee.
She is concerned that litter would be “billowing everywhere”. She added her concern about rats.
And Cllr Paul Trendall (Lib Dem, Campbell Park & Old Woughton) called Station Square “dismal” and said he wanted to see a “rodent mitigation plan” to deal with an “infestation” there.
He agreed though that “brightening the place up is a great idea.”
The committee was told that the square is currently covered by a city centre ban on street trading.
And to amend its rule, it first has to go through a statutory process involving public notices, and talking to the police and people in the council’s own departments, the town council, and ward councillors.
One of the ward councillors, Pauline Wallis (Lab, MK Central) was the committee’s lone voice of objection to plans for stalls.
She said: “I prefer to see benches and planting there. There’s nothing worse than travelling a long distance and seeing that square.
“It needs something to cheer you up, fresh air and a coffee.
“Personally I wouldn’t use it for trading,” she said.
The committee agreed to launch the consultation exercise, with the results to be reported back to a future committee meeting, for another decision.
