The great Market Street pancake race

The race, organised by Wellingborough Council and the Town Centre Partnership, will start at 11am outside the Swansgate shopping centre and will be officially started by the Mayor. The participants will make their way along Market Street to Gloucester Place, turn around and finish back at the shopping centre. Rutherfords, one of the shops along Market Street, has kindly donated a trophy to be presented to the winner.

The event is being held as another way to raise awareness of Market Street and its many independent shops during improvement works. A football match between traders and construction workers was held last year on Silver Street during improvement works there, which attracted considerable public support.

The second phase of improvement works on Market Street have been taking place since the beginning of the year and are due to finish in a few weeks' time. The works, which are funded by the government, involve widening the pavements and making the area more pedestrian-friendly and attractive for shoppers, and also repairing the road which was subsiding. Feedback from the traders has been extremely positive, with several commenting that they feel that Market Street is now more part of the main town centre shopping area.

Councillor Graham Lawman, chairman of the council's development committee said: "We really value the traders along Market Street and we are supporting them in any way we can. The pancake race is a bit of fun but it does have a serious side to it, which is to bring people to Market Street and remind them about the fantastic shops there. It should be a good event and we would love to see people coming along and cheering on the participants."