AMBITIOUS plans to buy Hatherleigh Market for the community will be shared with everyone in the town at a public consultation meeting on Saturday.

The meeting at Hatherleigh Community Centre takes place from 4.30pm to 6pm on November 25.

It is being staged by community group "Friends of Hatherleigh Market" who are on a mission to secure the purpose-built market as a community asset for generations to come.

They are launching a community share scheme to raise £100,000 as match funding to allow them to apply for a £1 million grant from the Government’s Community Ownership Fund. 

This would allow the group to buy the freehold from developer Kingswood Homes on behalf of the community.

The market building is currently being built in the Market Quarter in the town, where the developer is building homes on the site of the old livestock market.

So far £36,000 has been raised in community pledges.

Alongside this, the group wants to raise a further £100,000 through grants and fundraising to equip the market and make it fit for all-year-round use.

This money will be used to provide the building with glass sides, an office, two toilets and internal lighting and power as well as providing an electrical supply for the market square for outside events and stalls.

There are also plans for solar panels on the roof of the market and a number of electric vehicle charging points.

Members of the group will outline the plans at Saturday's meeting, hold a Q&A session and also hand out copies of the public consultation survey. This aims to find out whether people would support the market expanding beyond the current Tuesday market to offering markets throughout the week as well as other activity. 

"The survey will allow us to understand the community's views on how they use the market, and what they would support the site being used for in the future. It will provide us with evidence we can use to support our grant funding applications," said Richard Burrow of The Friends of Hatherleigh Market.

To find out more about pledging support to buy the market, visit www.fohm-cbs.org/pledge or collect a pledge form from Hatherleigh Community Centre or Hatherleigh Post Office. To support the crowdfunder, see www.fohm-cbs.org/crowdfund and to complete the survey go to www.fohm-cbs.org/survey.