Formal agreement sought over ownership of Biggleswade Market Square amid need for urgent action

A formal agreement is needed between two local authorities to resolve their responsibilities over Market Square in Biggleswade, where urgent action is needed to check the condition of electrical equipment, a meeting heard.

Town council officers met an electrician on site “to discuss the outstanding issues”, according to BTC’s place shaping manager Isaac Lord.

“The general consensus was an option by that electrician at a cost of £5,670,” he told town councillors.

“I’ve approached other electricians for quotes and there’s another electrician who’ll be doing an investigation into the (nine) pillars,” he explained.

Town councillor Madeline Russell said: “CBC registered our Market Square with HM Land Registry in June 2009, so it’s now in CBC’s name. We didn’t know at that time and only found out later.

“There’s never been any kind of formal agreement about the relationship between CBC and the town council over the management of the Market Square, and who does what.

“As a local authority, we’ve been running the market continuously, sorting issues with the hanging baskets and refurbishing the benches.

“Why, if it’s not our Market Square? Obviously we want to do this for the town. But we need to decide what’s CBC’s responsibility and what’s ours, as well as who’s paying for which aspects.

“It’s a wider issue. There was no negotiation at the time. We need a formal agreement now.”

Clerk Peter Tarrant replied: “One would hope CBC recognises its responsibility for its asset. A sensible decision might be to delay any decisions around spending money at this time until we have that absolute determination.”

Deputy mayor Mark Knight said: “The electrician has only done a visual inspection in the last year. You’d usually have a full test at least every five years for something of that nature, possibly more frequently given its high risk location.

“We certainly don’t seem to have any records of that which is a worry. Checking the earthing is good to ensure there’s not been any degradation.

“There are nine pillars each with a consumer unit. Some of the traders who need a 32Amp supply bypass the consumer unit and plug into a socket in the ground bypassing the safety equipment. We need to think how we stop that.

“There’s a possibility the sockets in the pillars could be overloaded and get hot because of the way the fusing is set up. We need an upgrade of that capital infrastructure.

“I hope we can move expediently and resolve the ownership issue later,” he added. “We can remove the socket in the ground, so there’s no potential for that to be bypassed or be overloaded, and take out all the 110V equipment which hasn’t been used for years.

“We need to ensure the system is fully tested and we should understand what the frequency is for re-testing, whether it’s three or five years.”

Councillors agreed three recommendations, including talks with CBC about establishing a legal contract between the two councils over use of the Market Square.