An event was held on Saturday (11 March 2023) to celebrate Harleston and completion of the work on the £1 million investment to improve the town centre.
Residents and visitors to historic Harleston can now enjoy a beautiful market town, where sightseeing, shopping, meeting friends and eating out is an even greater experience.
South Norfolk Cabinet member Lisa Neal said: “We are very proud of our market towns and our vibrant local economy. We understand that it’s the unique characteristics of our market towns that help to make South Norfolk such a wonderful place to live and visit. We also understand the importance of supporting our businesses and this was the latest in a series of investments that we have made into our market towns.”
The goal in Harleston, from the very first has been to develop the market town centre and future-proof the prosperity of Harleston and its businesses. Key to this was favouring pedestrians by enhancing and improving the open spaces and pavements, combined with reducing and slowing traffic along The Thoroughfare, Exchange Street and Broad Street.
The Market Place has also been improved with planters and seating for pedestrians, with new parking places created elsewhere in the town to replace the spaces that were previously on the Market Place.
The project partners have tried to minimise the impact on businesses while the work was taking place by maintaining close contact with business owners and by progressing the works in stages. Harleston Town Council also kept shoppers and residents up to date via its website.
The Harleston Town Centre Improvements project is a partnership between South Norfolk Council and Norfolk County Council, working with Harleston Town Council.
