Great Yarmouth market: Plans revealed for £3.6m facelift

Plans have been revealed for a £3.6m market redevelopment to help regenerate a seaside town.

A timber-framed covered hall and new stalls would replace the existing facilities on the Market Place in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

The borough council's previous redevelopment plans were rejected by traders in a consultation.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to... regenerate the town centre," said Conservative council leader Carl Smith.

"This is a positive move and hopefully the market traders will come along with us.

"We have got to use this money to change the lives of the residents of this town and also the people who come and visit."

The council has £2.5m in place for the scheme and wants to bid for the rest from the government's Future High Streets Fund.

Designs updated over the last 18 months for the market - which was last given an overhaul in 1992 - show wider walkways and spaces for pop-up events, with refurbished trader toilets and a new office also proposed.

Plans were discussed with stallholders at a briefing on Tuesday.

Trader Mel Wilson, from Barrie's Tea Stall, said: "The last [scheme] was awful but this one is much better.

"If we do not embrace change then we will not have a market.

"We have been left to go to rack and ruin for the last two years and we need to do something."

The council said the work would be carried out in two phases to limit disruption to traders, whose market runs for six days a week.

The scheme will go before the borough council's policy and resources committee on 21 January.

If planning permission is approved - and funding also granted - work could start next winter.