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Ampitheatre plan for Kettering



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Published Date: 24 July 2008
An unused market place will be transformed into a vibrant amphitheatre, with new restaurants also providing an attraction for visitors.

The £2.2m re-development of Kettering's Market Place was unveiled at a council meeting last night.
Members of Kettering Council's executive committee approved plans to overhaul the outdated and rarely used existing site.
The council's development manager, Paul Thomas, outlined the designs, which include building on the existing car park opposite the site, creating the amphitheatre, installing water features and planting new trees.
Mr Thomas said: "We want this to be a focal point and gathering space for Kettering.
"We want this to be a place where musicians can come and perform and where there can be theatre.
"There are plans for about 12 water features, with LED lighting and a canopy covering part of the area.
"The church is the main defining element of the area and we do not want to interrupt the view of that."
The council also hopes money could be spent refurbishing the fronts of shops that currently face the Market Place.
It also wants to attract restaurants to the area.
The plans were universally welcomed by committee members, who were shown artists' impressions of the site and pictures of how it had looked when the Market Place was surrounded by buildings prior to the building of the car park.
The leader of Kettering Council, Jim Hakewill, said: "We are determined to get this development right.
"We want to make people come into Kettering.
"We will see this town being revitalised, it's going to be great and this is the first part – you ain't seen nothing yet."
The next step in the development process is to finalise the design of the canopy and begin a consultation about what to include in a timeline of Kettering's history which will be engraved onto the paving of the Market Place.
Last month Kettering Council unveiled plans for the £12m redevelopment of the town.

The full article contains 330 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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  • Last Updated: 24 July 2008 9:20 AM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Kettering
 
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Dave Clemo,

24/07/2008 13:47:33
excuse me- but they want to attract more people to the market place. They want to put on concerts in the open air. And yet they plan to build on the nearest car park.
You couldn't make it up (you haven't have you?)
1. They should never have messed up the traffic system in the first place. The reason that nobody goes to the market area is that all the shoppers and traffic was driven away by the idiotic traffic scheme (that was designed to keep traffic away from the town centre and can therefore be deemed a success.
2. CAn anyone explain how the obvious noise pollution problems are going to be overcome? Which musicians are going to play there? If professional, how will they be paid? If amateur, who will want to see them? If theatre is going to be put on , what about dressing rooms and backstage facilities? Will there be a charge to use the facility? will the audience have to pay to watch? The artist's impression seems to show a screen of some sorts at the back of the arena. Does that mean that those outside can see for free, whilst those inside have to pay?
3. Will anyone want to visit a nice new restaurant (and no doubt pay big prices- unless these restaurants are of the MacD variety?) and have noisy music and bad theatre spoiling their meal?
lastly- it's outside. Will the stupid smoking ban apply? Pubs and music venues are struggling to stay open all over town. When I visit Sawyers (a particularly fine music venue) I find that up to half the audience are outside at any particular time. Apart from the noise pollution issues- it's very difficult for the performer to perform to a half empty room, and off putting for the fans to have people continually getting up and going out for a smoke.
I'm a musician and performer. I ought to be welcoming this proposal but in all honesty it's doomed to failure unless the more pressing issues are dealt with, namely- restoring the South-North traffic through Newland Street; allowing pubs and music venues to opt out and become sm
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Dave Clemo,

24/07/2008 13:52:02
Ran out of words----
allow pubs and music venues to become smoker friendly if the majority of the clientele want it.
Finally- when faced with the choice of going to Kettering or Market Harbough with its ease of parking and nice shops- I know which one I prefer. KBC should be looking at getting people into the town by making access and parking easier and cheaper.
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DT,

Kettering 24/07/2008 15:21:57
15 years ago there was a proper covered market there - 5+ greengrocer stalls, haberdashers, toys, clothes and just about everything. Then they 'improved' it and killed it off, moved it up to the centre, and there is now one greengrocer's stall in a town which allegedly has 70k+ people living in it.
Every time they tinker, they ruin it more...
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Joan & Rob,

25/07/2008 16:43:57
Kettering Borough Council strikes again........one day someone from that building just might come up with a good idea but I have a sneaky feeling we will all be long gone before that happens!!!!
Oh yes and how many Police will be around to patrol the Friday/Saturday night idiots that decide to bathe in the water features.......oops, sorry I forgot, the police station is closed in the evening in Kettering now so they all sit in their cars/riot vans hiding from all the trouble or take at least 48 hours to respond to any call for help.
Kettering used to be such a nice town but it has gone downhill rapidly over the past few years......I only come to Kettering now cos I work here; Kettering Borough Council just don't have a clue but I suppose they have to come up with these crazy ideas to make it look as though they do some work and to relieve the boredom of trying to sort out the mess they have made of the town.
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JGF52,

Kettering 31/07/2008 10:37:04
Yet another example of KBC short-termism. The town desperately needs to catch up with its recent growth- cycle routes, traffic signals (more like the excellently fast Siemens updated lights in Barton nr the petrol station), road widening (eg bridge over railway line nr Tesco), footbridges over the railway line (eg between Barton and Kettering Parkway). Not gimmicks like amphitheatres.
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donald.c,

kettering 10/08/2008 11:54:51
to sum it all up kettering borough council dont have a clue, sort out what is important first like the traffic system around the town, so if things like this are built people are able to get to and use the facilitys instead of having a system that can add miles to a simple journey adding to more pollution and for non local people great confusion + finally ketterings side streets being used as rat runs
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