Two bags of builder’s materiais left on Holbeach’s High Street for a year are spoiling efforts to improve the town, a civic leader has warned.
Coun Nick Worth, Lincolnshire County Council member for Holbeach and a member of the town’s action group, has been taking complaints about the bags which are connected with work on a new antiques and modern furniture shop in High Street.
Thankfully, the unsightly bags made no difference to Holbeach in Bloom winning Gold at the 2017 East Midlands in Bloom competition.
But Graham Rudkin, Holbeach in Bloom chairman, said: “The bags do have an impact on the town and I know that Coun Worth and district councillor Francis Biggadike have been trying to get them cleared.
“But nothing has been done about them and we’re disappointed because they’re on a public footpath, meaning there could be a safety impact as well.”
Coun Worth said: “Holbeach Town Action Group is trying quite hard to improve the look of High Street and get empty shops taken up.
“But we’ve got increasingly frustrated with these bags that have been outside one shop for a year and despite our best efforts, we’ve not been able to have them removed.
“I’d like to appeal to the builder concerned to move them as we’ve had numerous complaints and they are a disgrace to High Street.
“Everybody would understand it if building work was going on but you don’t need the bags out there for that length of time and we just want them off the street.”
Desiree Robinson, who plans to open the new antiques and modern furniture shop, said: “We are very disappointed and feel very let down that the contractor we engaged to complete the shopfitting project didn’t do so as promised.
“We anticipated that the work would have been completed by last summer and the contractor gave us three different dates to continue with the work, but they all never materialised.
“It was our understanding that the contractor was unable to finish the job due to personal reasons.
“However, we have now been able to engage another contractor who is willing to continue with the work and it should be restarted later this month.”
Time for action in Holbeach town centre