As part of the celebrations of the Queen's Jubilee, 1,500 school children and members of the public made clay houses, shops and public buildings which is now displayed as an art installation in Ashbourne Town Hall.
For more details about the project, please click the following link Our Town – ASHBOURNE FESTIVAL.
‘Our Town’ is supported by Ashbourne Festival, AshCom, Ashbourne Town Council and funded through the Derbyshire Foundation Jubilee Fund, the National Lottery and the Arts Council of England plus local sponsors.
We were delighted that the permission came through backed by such strong endorsements from the officers and councillors involved, and the ongoing support of the local community. We’re moving on to the next exciting stage.
We are delighted to announce that the Ashbourne Thursday Market will be open again on Thursday 25th June.
Please note that we will only have a limited number of traders this week, but pleased to confirm that this will increase as the weeks go by with some of the regulars coming back.
Don’t forget to keep a safe distance between you and other shoppers - approach the stall when safe to do so and pay contactless if possible.
We look forward to seeing you all again and the sun is out!
AshCom remains convinced that open-air food shopping, recognised by the government as a permitted activity, is a healthy environment. However, ensuring that visitors maintain social distance not only around the stalls but also on the site generally is potentially a major management task which we do not consider we have the resource to manage for a full day.
We appreciate that this will be a disappointment for both the traders who have shown great loyalty and support for the market and the growing and also loyal customer base. However, we concluded that we should only be encouraging people to leave home if it would be into a no-risk environment, with social distance effectively managed, is demonstrably for “essentials” and protects NHS from potential avoidable demands. We don’t believe we can do that.
Indeed our independent retailers provide access to many of the “essentials” that are needed and many of them are providing at-home delivery services. Each of us should be using this time of crisis and threat to take the opportunity of rebuilding loyalty to our independent retailers who are providing these home deliveries. This is a no mean physical or financial service which we must not undervalue. Please reward them with our support both now and when this crisis is passed. Our independents are there when we need them. Use this opportunity to rebuild our high street.
AshCom will re-introduce the market as soon as it is possible to fulfil the 4 mantras to our satisfaction. In the meantime, AshCom will continue working on the community projects it has embarked on over the last year, projects influenced by previous Neighbourhood Plan community consultations and engagement. These are focused on the environmental and social wellbeing of Ashbourne and its neighbours, intended to lead to increased footfall in the town, to rebuild our high street and to contribute to the economic wellbeing of the town which is the primary focus of Town Team.
And whilst those projects are being progressed, AshCom will be working to bring back the Thursday market to Shrovetide Walk as soon as possible and continue the robust growth that has been generated before the advent of Covid-19 crisis.
Ashbourne Communities CIC
31st March 2020
Press release
Community Company takes over Thursday market
AshCom, a community owned and run company, is taking over the management of the Thursday Shrovetide Walk market. This is the first vital step in the mission to rebuild Ashbourne’s reputation as a market town. It will contribute to the regeneration of the town by building footfall, improving the visitor and shopping experience and thus improving the town’s economy.
AshCom, the short form name for Ashbourne Communities’ CIC, is a community interest not for profit company.
Over the next two years, AshCom is planning to develop the market to create an attractive variety of local produce provided by local and regional traders who will fill Shrovetide Walk, making that area a bustling connection between Shawcroft and Compton.
AshCom is committing resources to actively promote the market on social media as well as in our local and regional press with the intention of bringing in visitors from a wide area, benefiting the retail and hospitality economies in Ashbourne.
Jeffrey Phillips of AshCom says “We had intended to take this step earlier this year. However, our research made us reassess our strategy. In particular that research highlighted that a town the size of Ashbourne would only be able to sustain one weekly general goods market. We recognised that developing either a Saturday or Thursday market would be in effect starting from scratch. So we assessed the level of competition from existing street market offerings within some 40 miles of Ashbourne with established reputations to which traders will already be committed. As a result, on balance, therefore, we decided that our focus should be on a Thursday weekly market.”
This will not be an overnight development. AshCom has set itself a two-year timescale to get the market up and running successfully. It will have professional on site management and community members will be volunteering their support. During its research, AshCom has been building a database of potential stall holders whilst keeping existing traders informed of progress.
Jeffrey Phillips went on to say “AshCom’s next steps, probably for some time in 2020, are to introduce a series of themed and specialist markets and to bring in events. The overriding objective is to build footfall in Ashbourne for the benefit of the town’s and area’s economy"
Ashbourne Communities CiC is a community owned and managed not for profit company set up during the last 12 months to tackle the regeneration of Ashbourne and surrounding communities, economically, environmentally and socially.
AshCom, the short form name, offers itself as a forum for exchange of thinking on projects directed towards that regeneration. Whilst being wholly independent of Town Council, AshCom at one level complements the purposes of Town Council and at another level brings an independent community driven objectivity to resolving the town and area’s issues free of the limitations imposed on statutory bodies.
That independence enables AshCom to access community focused grant sources not available to statutory bodies.
Groups of retailers are looking at ideas to bring economic life back into the town centre. As we know people’s needs for high street shopping has completely changed. Visiting Ashbourne and surrounding communities and facilities must be a leisure experience centred on a wealth of independent shops and producers where you get conversation and social contact lost in a world of online and out of town shopping.
A significant part of that leisure experience is the environment. One of the top problems in that is traffic and frequent congestion, creating air pollution and diminishing the whole visitor and shopping experience. A group of committed residents have set themselves the task of seeking resolution of that.
AshCom itself has spent many months in discussions with District Council agreeing terms to take on the management of the street market, to commit the resources to professionally promote and support the street market and rebuild Ashbourne’s reputation as a Market town. This is not an overnight job. AshCom has set itself a programme through to 2021. Discussions with District Council are coming to fruition.
These, and we know there are other initiatives, are geared to the same objectives. AshCom feels that it is well placed to bring all such initiatives into a cohesive strategic plan, to use that to work with statutory bodies as needed and to source grants and social investment.
From a standing start AshCom’s members provide a wide spectrum of skills and experience...... architecture and building design, community funding, construction and engineering, education and youth services, financial management, highways, local government, marketing, planning, retailing, social and health services, strategy planning and implementation.
But we need more depth.
AshCom will be going into the communities to present its offering and build its membership base. We had intended to get to this stage earlier but have been focused on Ashbourne’s street market. The wider the support is from the communities of the Ashbourne area, the greater our credibility as a community driven group in dealing with statutory bodies and with sources of grants and social investment.
If you wish to know more about AshCom visit our section "Become a Shareholder" on our website if you wish to become a member and it costs just £1.
Ashbourne Communities CiC
The Saturday Market references in the report for the July Council meeting and at the meeting were in fact a restatement of the Council’s known intention which had been expressed last year. This was in the context of the minuted resolution to provide funding for Wirksworth market and intended to provide councillors with a reminder of the Ashbourne intention. So no resolution has been passed which changes or renews District Council’s known intention which was to be effective April 2018.
The newly formed community interest company, Ashbourne Community’s CIC (‘AshCom’), with Town Council support, concerned that nothing was being done to reverse this previous District Council decision, decided to intervene to ensure that a new quality street market offer is retained on Market Square.
We are in contact with officers and councillors at DDDC and are putting together a business plan and heads of terms to enable this community led initiative to take over responsibility with effect from 1st October, and keep the market at Market Place.
AshCom is meeting with stallholders and organisers of other markets both in Ashbourne and elsewhere so that the developing business, and marketing, plan will create a robust, proven and professionally managed market. The thinking so far is that it should reach out through the town bringing footfall to benefit retailers and hospitality providers, put quality before quantity and have themes and street entertainment. AshCom is convinced that a vibrant market can be created. It won’t happen overnight.
It might not be re-launched until spring 2019. But it will be a success and it will be centred on the Market Place.
And AshCom? You will hear more of that quite soon.
