South Yorkshire Times February 13th 1965
Great Development During the Next 3 to 5 Years
An attractive shopping prospect for Conisbro’
The conversion of West Street, Conisbrough, into a pedestrian precinct could be one of the possibilities of the future for the development of the township.
How to attract local people to shop locally is one of the major problems to concern local tradespeople. “You can’t expect residents to shop locally,” as one trader told the “South Yorkshire Times”, “if you haven’t the goods and the shopping facilities to offer them.”
Optimistic
A “South Yorkshire Times” reporter spoke this week to Conisbrough Council’s Engineer and Surveyor, Mr. R.M. Clark, about the possible lines of development within the town centre.
Mr. Clark was optimistic about the future.
We were pleasantly surprised when we saw the way in which Conisbrough lends itself to development,” he said. “ I think one might almost envisage the future West Street becoming a pedestrian precinct on the lines of the Buchanan Report, and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Church Street could be adapted as well. But that is looking into the distant future.
Particularly adaptable
The Surveyor said that Conisbrough was particularly adaptable to plans on the lines of the Buchanan Report because of roads such as New hill, High Street, Elm Green Lane and March Street, which ran adjacent to the centre or parallel to existing main roads, and which could be used as “feeder” roads. He stressed, however, that suggestions such as this did not represent a local authority policy.
“Conisbrough’s development has been almost wholly on the initiative of private enterprise,” he said.
“Directing force”
“The Council have tried to help where they could by suggesting sites for development and pointing out modern requirements of any such development, and the lines it should take; in other words, acting more as a directing force.”
In the field of private enterprise, Mr. Clark instanced a development planned for West Street by the Eagle and Child Hotel, which was particularly interesting in that it consisted of eight shops in the form of a miniature pedestrian precinct. Another site planned for lock-up shops is on part of the car park by the Church Hall in Church Street. Farther up Church Street the disused cinema is to be converted into a supermarket, and another five shops are planned on a site by the newsagent’s premises at the junction of Church Street with West Street.
The fringe estates
The estates which have grown on the fringes of the older township are not being neglected. On the Ellershaw estate for instance, there are sites, possibly for shopping development, in Maple Grove and Chestnut Grove.
Mr. Clark anticipated a notable change in the face of Conisbrough within the next three to five years.
“For too long we have been forced to travel out of Conisbrough to do our shopping,” he said. I can see the time when people will be able to do the majority of their shopping here. It is a natural process which will come as a matter of course, as parking problems in big towns get worse and worse.”
Car parking
On the subject of parking, Mr. Clark added, “In Conisbrough we are ensuring that with every new development there is adequate parking space for shoppers.”
“We have no vast re-development scheme such as Mexborough,” said the Surveyor, “yet properly negotiated, with some measure of co-operation between developers and the local authority, it could bring to Conisbrough shoppers the benefits of modern trading a good deal sooner, and with less commotion, than outwardly more ambitious plans.”