More artwork, ‘Boris bikes’ and images of Spalding town centre are among the ideas being mooted to attract more visitors.
More displays like the recently installed The Hiring, including the re-installation of the Johnson Fountain were among the ideas Spalding and District Civic Society’s David Jones told a meeting of the Spalding Town Forum last week.
He also said that the society had spoken with Springfields Shopping Outlet about attracting more customers from there into the town.
Ideas include large pictures of Spalding town centre being place at Springfields along with the rented bikes introduced in London during Boris Johnson’s reign as mayor.
“Spalding is a historic market town and we’d like to make it very distinctive and make people want to come in to look at it,” David said. “You’ve got to give them something to look at.
“If we put beautiful things in town we hope people will get a sense of pride in their town.
“Everyone seems to like the idea and we’ve got more projects coming on.
“We’ve given Springfields some ideas and they’re quite keen to put up attractive pictures of the town centre and make people want to go in.
“I even suggested perhaps some Boris bikes so that people who come on a day trip on a coach could hire a bike and make a trip into the town centre.
“We’ve got the cycle route signposted thanks to Section 106 money which was a great idea.”
David said they group were looking at funding options for more artworks in the town.
“We want something to celebrate the poultry market, there may be a mosaic appearing somewhere,” he continued.
“We want something to celebrate the fact sheep were sold in Sheep Market.
“We may put some sheep like figures for children to climb on while cattle was sold in New Road apparently.
“We’re not quite sure yet but they’re ideas we’re working through our minds.
“We’re looking at some of the amazing work artists have done.
“It’s about making the whole place very special and people will want to come into Spalding.
“We’ve also got the Johnson Drinking Fountain, which should be connected to the water supply and none of this should cost anybody here anything.
“The great thing about it is the funding for the bronze figures came from the Arts Council and Transported, likewise for The Hiring.
“There’s plenty of sources of money to do these things but we would like to feel that the council are with us because we have a tradition of fighting the council on various things such as the occasional planning application.
“But we want the same as what the council does.
“We want Spalding to thrive and be a great place to live and work and for people to visit.
S”This is our intention and when we apply for money from various sources, if we can say the council supports us in this rather than we are at odds this is going to help us with potential funding.”
