MIDDLESBROUGH’S hugely popular Orange Pip Market is on the move for a Summer Special in Centre Square.
The monthly event has grown massively in its first year and attendances, which are regularly around 6,500, have already led to one expansion to include stalls on Bedford Street as well as Baker Street.
Moving the market would provide a number of opportunities as well as some much needed breathing space. Whereas currently Baker and Bedford Street can accommodate only 25-30 traders for Orange Pip Market, Centre Square could hold 70-100.
Other benefits identified by organisers Middlesbrough Council include the improvement of access for buggies, prams, wheelchairs and mobility vehicles which are all affected by the overcrowding.
Centre Square will be trialled for the Saturday, June 24 event and if successful the venue will be used in July and August with a further review for the autumn season.
Sharon Thomas, Middlesbrough Council’s Director of Economic Development and Infrastructure, said: “We are hugely excited by the continued growth and development of Orange Pip Market and June’s Summer Special will be a special day for everyone in Centre Square.
“The possibilities for Orange Pip are endless and it has a key role to play in our regeneration plans to make Middlesbrough the economic heart and city centre of the Tees Valley region.
“Centre Square also has a key role to play as Middlesbrough’s centrepiece and our plan is not only to create the city region’s premier office location with five Grade A office buildings to the eastern end, with planning permission approved last week, but also to create a major hub of cultural and leisure activity.
“That includes making more use of Centre Square for high profile and high quality events as it is one of the biggest and best civic spaces of its kind in the UK.”
The Centre Square masterplan is part of Middlesbrough Council’s Investment Strategy that will see the authority invest £74m over the next four years which aims to deliver a further £625m of private investment into the town and to create 5,000 new jobs.