Bury Council says work at Ramsbottom Market Place starts next week. Its own delivery partner had already dated it to 17 September, with planting in December.

Ramsbottom Market Place is being repaired and replanted, and the work is further along than Bury Council’s own announcement suggests.

The council said on Friday that work “begins next week”. Three days earlier, the organisation delivering the project had already put the start at Thursday 17 September, and had given the two dates the council release leaves out.

Proffitts CIC, which supports the Ramsbottom Greening Project alongside the council and Ramsbottom Civic Pride, posted on 15 September that the first phase was due to start that Thursday and would “continue until mid-October 2026”. The planting, it said, “is scheduled to take place during December 2026 and January 2027”.

The council release says only that attention will turn to planting “once these works are complete”, and that it looks forward to seeing things “take shape over the coming months”. So the honest answer to the question a Ramsbottom resident will actually ask, when will it look any different, is: not this year. Colour arrives in winter, and shows in spring.

We could not confirm today whether work did start on the 17th. Neither the council’s release nor the project page says so, and the council page was published a day after the stated start date still describing the work as about to begin.

Key dates for the Ramsbottom Greening Project, February 2026 to January 2027

What the first phase covers

The council lists the work on the square itself:

  • stone coping stones refixed and secured
  • the metal railings around the raised beds repainted
  • loose and uneven stone flags along the top of the steps re-laid
  • loose bollards secured
  • drainage in the area cleared

Then there is the small stone feature known locally as the “castle”. A new raised planting bed goes in front of it, the existing datestone is repositioned so it can be seen more easily, and the interpretation panel is updated and moved.

The Urn sculpture in the centre of the square and its immediate setting stay as they are. Proffitts refers to it by its full name, the Tilted Vase, and describes it as an Irwell Valley water sculpture.

What happens to the planting

This is the part likely to draw comment. The council says that once the stonework is done, “some of the existing evergreen shrubs and selected trees will be removed to make way for a colourful mix of perennials, grasses and bulbs”.

Two things are worth holding on to there. It is shrubs and “selected trees” being removed, and the council has not said how many or which. And the planting already cared for by Ramsbottom Civic Pride is being kept, with the new scheme designed to work around it. Civic Pride is a volunteer group. Proffitts described it on 13 August as having grown to 885 members in its Facebook group.

Councillor Charlotte Morris, cabinet member for regeneration and growth, said the changes “will make the area more attractive and welcoming, while building on the features that are already there”.

This is one of three sites, not one

Market Place is the first of the Greening Project’s sites to reach construction. The project is funded by Bury Council through the government’s Local Growth and Place Flexible Grants programme. Neither the council nor Proffitts has published how much Market Place costs.

Site Where Stage
Market Place Around the Tilted Vase, Bridge Street Phase one under way, planting winter 2026-27
Bridge Street Gardens Off Bridge Street, next to the East Lancashire Railway signal box Consulted on with Market Place, no start date published
Factory Street and Ramsbottom Lane The green space between the two Survey closed 17 August 2026, no plans published

The public consultation on the first two sites ran from 17 February to 30 March 2026. The Factory Street site came later, and Ramsbottom Civic Pride ran its own survey on it, closing on 17 August. Ideas listed for that one were managing existing trees and overgrown vegetation, more colourful planting, spring bulbs and wildflowers, better paths and steps, wall repairs and new habitat for birds and insects.

Neither organisation has published what the consultations found.

What it means for you

  • If you park or shop around Market Place, expect works on the square into mid-October. Neither the council nor the project has published a road or footway closure for it. If one appears, it will be on Greater Manchester road works online.
  • If you were expecting new planting this autumn, it is not coming until December at the earliest, and on the project’s own timetable it runs into January.
  • If you have a view on which trees and shrubs come out, the consultation on this site closed in March. The place to raise it now is Ramsbottom Civic Pride or the council directly.
  • For everything else shut or dug up across the borough, see our Bury roadworks and travel page.

Sources