The blight of garish vinyl-covered shop windows could be consigned to history in Spalding with a new guide for businesses.
The town’s civic society has long been campaigning to have the ‘garish’ vinyl-filled windows removed from the town centre.
And its wish could soon be granted with the development of a shop front design guide which will see the district council and the new Town Board working together to improve the street scene.
“The draft design guide is commissioned and is getting ready for consultation, along with the conservation area appraisal for the town centre and heritage strategy.
“The consultation is due to commence for all three documents in October,” says a report to South Holland District Councils Policy Development Panel, which is due to meet next week.
While there is currently no budget for the council to offer grants to improve shop fronts, the move is being considered by the recently-created Town Board.
But there continues to be a role for the council to signpost available grants from other bodies.
The six-month update on a final report by the Business Frontage Task Group earlier this year, says there are now monthly meetings with the Business Improvement District (BID) manager which include street scene updates.
There is no legislation currently available to prevent vinyl window coverings.
“Training and workshops could also be offered to help business owners and landlords of premises with shop frontages,” said the update.
The town’s Civic Society started campaigning to improve the street scene in 2017 when it counted 27 shops using vinyl film to blank out expanses of the windows.
Since then a large number of those shops have left the town, but there remains several businesses still using them.
A meeting about the problem earlier this year heard from a council officer in Somerset which had been offering grants to help the situation.
