THE builders working on the Cirencester Market Place regeneration scheme appear to have now finished and vacated the site.

The work was initially supposed to be finished last November, having started the previous February.

Speaking at a Retail Forum meeting last week, town council chief executive Andrew Tubb had confirmed that the workers were due off site by the end of last week.

Mr Tubb apologised for how long the scheme had taken to date, but said now begins a “maintenance period” before the revamp is “fully signed off by the county council” in about one year’s time.

“There have been a lot of challenges, which have got exasperating at times for us, we really appreciate your patience over the last 12 months,” he said at the meeting last Monday.

“Responsibility for ongoing maintenance will be their [GCC’s] responsibility, apart from the pedestrian area in front of the church.

“That area in front of the church will be the responsibility of the town council,” he said.

He explained that CTC also has an agreement with the county council that if any maintenance works are required in future “the stone won't be replaced by tarmac, it will be replaced on a like-for-like basis”.

What’s more, the town council is required to do four independent safety/mobility audits in relation to the scheme.

“We've done two already, a third one is due to be done on completion of the scheme,” he said. “A fourth one will be carried out in 12 months’ time.”

Mr Tubb went on to say: “I have committed to meet with the RNIB [Royal National Institute of Blind], other access groups, and individuals who have contacted me on publication of the third road safety audit to talk through with those groups and individuals anything of concern that comes up through that independent audit.”

He said those organisations received a copy of the Cirencester Town Centre Public Realm Design Code, “which has been published by the town council to help shape future development with the town centre”.

“I've emailed it to those organisations so they can feed into that some of their concerns. But sadly I received no response from those organisations and the town council have adopted that document.”