From Tuesday, the road will be closed to vehicles until the project is finished, which is expected to be before Christmas. It will still be open to pedestrians.

Tamworth Regional Council planning and compliance director Peter Thompson said the mall-like upgrade would be “a great space that people will use for decades for come” and the “next step in the Peel Street beautification”. 

“The goal is this will be like a city square environment, where we’re hoping the community will hold regular events,” Mr Thompson said.

“The street will be blocked off here hopefully once, twice or three times a month, if not more frequently and it will be a space that will hopefully improve the nightlife of Tamworth with lots of community events.”

Council will soon start inviting the community to nominate an event they might like to hold in the street.

“If you’ve got a club, an association, an interest group that might like a street event, let’s start planning that now for the beginning of next year,” Mr Thompson said.

Initial construction has been underway for a few weeks, and in that time small trees and parking meters have been removed, while “significant earthworks” have also been started.

Mr Thompson said once complete, the street would provide the community with a friendlier pedestrian experience, with paving from wall to wall and no curb and guttering.

“There will be a one-way lane of traffic to about halfway, then two-way traffic and parking from that point,” he said.

There will also be Wi-Fi, CCTV, drinking water stations, bicycle parking and street furniture.

Mr Thompson said the existing taxi rank would be relocated to a temporary location Kable Avenue, adjacent to Bicentennial Park.

“The rank is a shared bus/taxi zone and the taxi phone will be relocated there also,” Mr Thompson said.

The permanent location for the taxi rank will be in front of Peel House on Fitzroy St.

“We’re going to put a shelter up there – those works are still in the planning stage, but they’ll be complete by the time the Fitzroy project is completed,” Mr Thompson said.

THE cold snap has hit Tamworth, which means its normally the busiest time of the year for the Scarf Room.

But the past two Saturdays, the Fitzroy St store has been lucky to have a single customer.

Scarf Room owner Leonie Carroll is concerned the Fitzroy St construction, which she is located directly opposite of, is driving people away.

She’s afraid it will get worse once the street is closed and potential customers can’t park near her store – and she says she isn’t the only business with those concerns.

“Malls aren’t in fashion – look at the ones in Armidale, or some of the ones in Sydney like Penrith,” Ms Carroll said.

Homestead Coffee Lounge owner Richard McMahon said council had been talking about the upgrade since 1992.

While he’s “glad it’s happening”, he’s still not sure if it will do everything council says it will.

“Put it this way, it can’t be a negative, it can only be a plus,” Mr McMahon said.

“But whether it attracts more people, we’ll have to wait and see what the finished product is.”

The long-time cafe owner said he would be glad to see the taxi rank moved, which would help create a more family-friend environment.

Tamworth Regional Council planning and compliance director Peter Thompson said the Fitzroy St businesses “have been wonderful all the way along”.

“We’ve spoken to them regularly from the time the plans started forming up,” he said.

“We’re encouraging people to continue using the businesses. Although the road will be closed, there will be definitely be pedestrian access.”