DESIGNS for a new market at the heart of Brighouse – one of its £19.1 million Town Deal funding projects – have been finalised.

A planning application is being submitted, and the tender process to find a contractor is due to start soon, says Brighouse Town Deal Board.

The £3 million revitalised market on the existing canalside Ship Street site will have around 20 fixed stalls, each with water, drainage and power.

There will also be a flexible central space that can be used for events or additional pop-up stalls to encourage new business start-ups.

Alongside spaces to sit, rest and meet, with views over the canal, there will be new toilets for traders plus storage, to create a modern, attractive and vibrant market with the aspiration to open more days of the week.

Other features will include an improved pedestrian area at the front and level access to the market, secure, decorative gates featuring a Brighouse-themed design, new cycle parking, and new entrances and exits to provide better connections to the town, says the Board.

Subject to planning approval, work on the new market is due to start in spring 2024 and be complete by spring 2025.

A temporary site to ensure stallholders can continue to trade, shoppers can continue to buy has also now been provisionally secured and the current market will temporarily move to Daisy Street car park for around 12 months while construction is under way.

Just across Anchor Bridge from Ship Street, this will provide continuity for the market, supporting its current tenants and providing space for temporary market stalls, says the Board.

The Brighouse Deal is a joint project between the town’s private and voluntary sector, community and residents’ groups, Calderdale Council and Calderdale College.

Cabinet member for Resources, Coun Silvia Dacre (Lab, Todmorden) said: “We hope this will also encourage new businesses and start-ups, providing a route for them to use pop-up stalls occasionally, through to fixed market units, to permanent commercial space in the town centre."

Chair of Brighouse Town Board, Coun Howard Blagbrough (Con, Brighouse), said the board was determined to ensure the market has an even brighter future.

“Ensuring we have a temporary market site that allows our current traders to continue to trade while construction takes place is another vital part of the scheme, and we will be working with the stallholders and the council’s markets team to ensure this is suitable for them, that shoppers know where the temporary market is, and they are encouraged to visit, shop and spend."