THE Pannier Market becomes ‘Tavistock’s Covent Garden’  What a fabulous idea by Martin Hawkins and as I read on my mind and thoughts started to run wild!

Could this ever happen? Could it get off the ground? Could the idea be sold to the vast amount of interested parties, councils and planning departments and more importantly to the folk of Tavistock?? The answer must be a big fat yes!

My wife and I, along with friends, had lunch at the Cornish Arms last Saturday and whilst there I took time to ask some people, young and middle aged, their views on Tavistock’s pannier market!

The older generations view was it’s a typical town market, old, cold and feeling very damp. As for the younger generation most had never ever been inside the building. One or two said they hadn’t been to the pannier market since they stopped playing live music..  

Count me in Martin I think this a great idea although parking could be a problem but on the other hand it doesn’t seem to faze the council when approving another 750 houses!

It was some 17 years or so ago that Walter Helm and myself presented a plan to the chamber of commerce and local council to solve part of Tavistock’s parking problem (and I’m sure that this has been mooted before) — a multi story car park beneath the town’s square with the entrance just before the church and the exit opposite. It would have lifts and a stairway up to the Square plus the high street to be pedestrianised from Russell Street to Vigo bridge — and as you can imagine it went down like a lead balloon!

Just think there could be an area for pop-up new businesses, young guys and girls just starting out and looking for a leg up, a four-week period of little or no rent so they can showcase their ideas (maybe euro or government grants for this!)  

If you look around at the new businesses in Tavistock i.e. Taylors restaurant and the Cornish Arms to mention just two, they are run by go- get hard working young people and I’m sure they would have not turned down a leg up from something like this.

Simon Allen