PLANS to pep up High Wycombe’s “dwindling” market need to be put back on the agenda, councillors have urged - as coronavirus and the creation of the new Bucks-wide council scuppered ideas to bring it alive.

Councillors and shoppers alike have complained for years now that the town’s market - which usually opens three times a week and is run by an external company - is going “downhill”.

At the end of last year, consultants were hired to look at the ailing market by Wycombe District Council. And right before the coronavirus outbreak, some fresh ideas for improving the market had been brought forward, including plans for a vegan market and an international food market.

However, the vegan market, which would have had more than 40 stalls, had to be cancelled for health and safety reasons.

But with life slowly returning to a ‘new’ normal as the virus outbreak lessens, High Wycombe councillors are once again looking at ways to breathe new life into the town’s retail offering.

Speaking at the first High Wycombe town committee meeting since the pandemic outbreak, which was held virtually on Tuesday evening, Cllr Matt Knight - a vocal critic of the current market - said this was an area of “great concern” to many people.

Urging councillors to once again look at the offering, he said: “The whole landscape has changed around how retail is working, so that presents some challenges but also some opportunities around supporting local providers and people have certainly changed their shopping habits recently.

“It is a prime opportunity to look at how we can make some positive changes to the market and bring some life back into it.”

Fellow Wycombe Independent councillor Julia Wassell added: “There were some extremely positive proposals coming forward about the market just before the coronavirus pandemic – there was going to be some sort of international market coming in and there were some new ideas and new stallholders coming in.

“A lot of work and lobbying had gone into getting that agreed. So I would like to know if that is now off the table.”

The town committee agreed to put the market on their ‘forward work programme’, meaning regular updates and discussions will be held at their monthly meetings from now on.