TRADERS and residents in Chorley will be asked for their views on how they want to see Chorley town centre develop to ensure it has a thriving future going forward.

Chorley Council committed to undertaking the consultation as part of its plans to improve the town centre and extend the Market Walk shopping centre.

The aim is to retain the town’s unique offer with the markets and independent traders key to attracting new visitors to Chorley.

Cllr Alistair Bradley, leader of Chorley Council, said: “While we’ve been finalising plans for the shopping centre extension people have been very clear that they don’t want this to lead to Chorley losing its unique appeal and want the markets and independent traders at the heart of everything we do.

“We share that view and I think it has been slightly lost in a lot of the conversations about the new development, which is here to broaden the appeal of our town centre, not to have a negative impact on what we have already got.

“We know the markets and our independent shops are really popular, not just from the comments from visitors, but we also get other market towns coming to us wanting to see how we run them successfully, particularly around how we’ve moved the weekly Tuesday market and continued to get lots of really good feedback.”

The council will undertake the consultation in parallel with the work to finalise the Market Walk extension with the organisation keen to hear from traders, residents, shoppers and those who don’t visit Chorley to see what would bring them here.

The consultation will seek people’s views around:

Modernising the market offer – what direction do the markets need to take and how do we ensure it appeals to younger generations?

What do people think about the Covered Market building and location

More speciality and evening markets – would people visit and what form should these take?

Regular opening hours (more days/later closing) including encouraging Sunday opening across the town centre – a key audience that Chorley currently misses out on

Increasing the leisure offer and use of open spaces

Any ideas/suggestions people want to share

“As much as we like to be nostalgic and reminisce about what has gone before people’s lifestyles and shopping habits are changing and we need to react to that,” said Councillor Bradley.

“As good as the current offer is in today’s world things are changing fast and we’ve got to get ahead of the curve and ensure the town centre offer as a whole is right to appeal to a wider audience.

“The new development will do that, because it will deliver things like a cinema that people have told us will bring them to Chorley, but beyond that we need to ensure the town centre as a whole adapts to changing habits and the growth of online shopping.

“We need to be able to deliver an experience that people want to come into Chorley for at a time that is convenient for them.

“It’s no use us as an organisation coming up with ideas in isolation we need to keep talking to people to see what they want to see beyond the cinema, restaurants and new retailers that we are bringing next year when the Market Walk extension opens.

“We are investing significant sums of money in the facilities we’ve already got and the appearance of the town centre but this consultation will help us focus it on what will really give our town centre a vibrant future.”

Full details of the consultation will be shared in the coming weeks and to keep up-to-date with what’s happening search ‘town centre improvements’ at chorley.gov.uk.