High Wycombe: Here's what you said about transforming Frogmoor into an outdoor food court

The Holmer Green resident praised the initiative to partially pedestrianise the High Street and Pauls Row on certain days until September 30 to boost business in the town.

He said it would help “invigorate the area and make it more of a place to be”.

Mr Cadle then went on to say how, walking across Frogmoor in recent years, he has thought about the “wonderful open space” could be turned into a food court, like the ‘food cart’ scene in Portland, Oregon, with the council providing a place to sit and food vendors would be invited to set up shop on the periphery.

His letter prompted more than 100 comments on the Bucks Free Press website and Facebook page, with many readers praising the idea, and one reader saying it would “elevate that end of the town”.

They wrote: “Brilliant idea. It would elevate that end of the town and hopefully reduce the anti-social behaviour that frequently occurs there.

“There is scope for real diversification so we could encourage vendors to bring more global cuisines to our area. I would love to see more authentic street foods available.

“You could introduce an app so that customers could sit at a table, open the app and order from any available vendor for table service thereby reducing crowding and footfall, also allowing those at the same table to order from different outlets.

“The app could also allow patrons to buy a ‘suspended’ meal so that our local homeless people could approach participating vendors and request a meal knowing it was paid for – this would reduce begging and allow the homeless of Wycombe more dignity than they’re currently afforded.

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“It could be something truly special if we all put our scepticism aside and worked together to rejuvenate Frogmoor.”

Another reader commented: “Love this idea. There are some lovely small businesses popping up all over the place. I always support them but so few, that I eat the same thing all the time.

“There is a huge market for decent food and eateries. I would pay a premium for high quality food. There just isn’t enough of it available.”

Jay Silvester wrote on the BFP’s Facebook post: “I think it’s a great idea. Frogmoor needs some attention to brighten it up a bit.

“I think it would be a great thing for the community and would give High Wycombe town a bit of a boost.”

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And Matthew Larcombe wrote: “I think this would be great if you make it all pedestrian and then create something with food and drink vendors ‘street food’.”

But Michelle Szefer did not agree, saying: “Ridiculous idea. Firstly, it’s not exactly a nice area to sit and eat and secondly, there’s already a load of places to eat from in town,” while Simon Tickner commented: “Not more food outlets FFS, come on, can’t people think of better ideas [like] more market stalls.”

Jacqueline Marshall called for the old fountain to be brought back, while Ashley Whiteman suggested turning it into a “market area” and Steven Pringle said: “Would be great to see some form of regeneration. Frogmoor is the forgotten part of the town centre in most plans.”