Welcome to Archive News 1

Here is a collection of Market Traders Branch Newsletters & other News

The Pleydell-Smithyman Report is below - click here.

National Market Traders Federation Northampton Branch Newsletter April 2009
Two traders have managed to do what no council in almost forty years of there being a market traders’ committee has, and that is to split the traders. Through thick and thin we have always stuck together and that is ultimately the only “weapon” that we have left when all else fails. But thanks to the greed and selfishness of two traders in conducting an unofficial petition consisting mostly of lies and half-truths, that half the traders that signed it admit to not reading properly, the council has achieved its aim to divide and conquer.
At our last market office meeting Derrick Simpson was asked the question: “Are the council going to continue working with the elected committee or accept unofficial petitions?”. His reply was that they would not accept unofficial petitions. It will come as no surprise to any of you to know that this Liberal Democrat administration (The worst we have ever had to deal with) eagerly seized upon this unofficial petition letter and actually had a cabinet meeting with it on the agenda on March 18th.
Many traders were there to witness them dismiss out of hand an almost eleven thousand signature petition by the Northampton public, but use an unofficial thirty four name petition as a template that all the traders supported their plans. This spurious piece of paper the council used as a “bat to hit us round the head with”.
By accepting this piece of fiction the council have shown their desperation. All meetings concerning the proposed “market improvements” have been with the N.M.T.F. Northampton Branch Committee. The council should be aware that if the traders are not happy with their committee it only needs twelve signatures to force a vote of no confidence and an E.G.M. is then called to form a new committee. This is the correct procedure the N.B.C. should follow if they want to meet with the elected traders committee. Not just accept any piece of paper because it suits their needs at the time.
All the talk from the Judas two about: ‘The move is inevitable’, ‘We can’t do anything about it’, ‘It’s all cut and dried’, ‘We must move on, accept that the council is trying to help us...’ Blah, Blah, Blah, is not true.
The Friday prior to the cabinet meeting the market committee chairman spent from 5 PM until 11 PM with a brilliant solicitor trying to stop the move with a judicial review (As voted for many times by the traders). This only failed literally at the eleventh hour when the duty High Court judge was about to give us the judicial review, and he asked if we had the funds to cover the council costs if we lost. Unfortunately we did not have enough, but if we do collect enough we can still do this as the council costs would not be as much, as they have already moved the stalls. If we won they would have to put them back; if we lost it would only be court case costs.
The point of this newsletter is, do the majority of traders still want a traders committee? If you do there is an official A.G.M. on Wednesday 13th May where a new committee can be elected. If you don’t then the Judas two and the council have won.
Before you make that decision you may want to consider who will fight for your rights the next time you have a problem; we don’t always win but we always try. It might be worth asking Mr Andreoli why he doesn’t trust committees and how he got his stalls all those years ago.
A final word on the unofficial ‘petition’ to show what a shabby stroke was being pulled: even Fitzy signed it without reading it as did many of the others, half of whom have admitted that in hindsight they should not have signed and would prefer their stalls on the old layout.
This unbelievably inept Lib-Dem administration has only two years to run and then the people of Northampton will have the opportunity to annihilate them as they surely will. So if we can’t beat them at least the public of Northampton will. Let’s just hope the market can survive another two years.

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Split Ranks. Northampton Market traders split ranks shortly before an important Cabinet decision about whether to go ahead with controversial plans to move Northampton Market to the top end of the Market Square.
 
An “I'm alright, Jack” letter was sent to NBC by traders towards the top of the points list who didn't want to lose their places if another method of selection was chosen. The letter said that the undersigned were happy with the positions they had been allocated, and wanted the move to take place as soon as possible It was signed by 34 out of some 90 traders. It was eagerly seized upon by the NBC Cabinet as a vindication of their plans, as by some perverted mathematics they curiously claimed at the Cabinet meeting that it represented a majority of market traders.

Mick Wilson, Chairman of the Market Traders Branch Committee, said the letter gave no concerns for those traders further down the points list, many of whom were smaller traders who would miss out on good positions and would have to take whatever was offered. 'NBC need to revise their plan and put up more stalls so that there is a decent position for everybody.' said Mick Wilson.

Some of these smaller traders have been standing Northampton Market for many years, and their seniority is not being acknowledged by NBC, who give more points to those traders who come most often and have the most stalls. In most UK markets, seniority is the general standard used to decide trader positions, but not at Northampton.

'I was present at the Cabinet meeting which made the decision to go ahead with the move, and the lies we heard spilling out of the mouths of these well-fed top councillors was appalling,' an unnamed trader told us: 'We had to sit there and say nothing and hear these dishonest swine running us down like dogs. A few traders called out in sheer frustration and were ordered to be silent. A couple of decent councillors spoke up for us, but the Cabinet put the plans through without discussion. It was like being present at a trial in Nazi Germany. Democracy just wasn't in it.'

Another trader who also refused to be named said he was astonished by the Liberal Democrat Cabinet performance. 'I'd never been to a council meeting before, and well, I thought they had to debate things, like, and come to some conclusion at the end. This lot just gave it the nod, like. It was so cold-blooded; the futures of scores or even hundreds of people put in jeopardy like that. You can understand why the Communists wanted to do away with people like these.'

The Market Traders voted almost unanimously to initiate legal action against NBC if the council went ahead with the move, and Chairman Mick Wilson said this would be the next step

National Market Traders Federation Northampton Branch Newsletter February 2009

 As most of you will have noticed, N.B.C are ploughing on with THEIR ideas to "regenerate" the market square. Despite 94% of Northampton's traders not backing THEIR scheme, and over 8000 members of the public so far registering their displeasure via the "Save the market" petition, N.B.C have continued to ignore everyone.

 By now you will have received your copy of the market re-allocation guidelines. It states at the top that "stalls will be allocated by the senior market officer, as discussed and recorded in the minutes of market traders' committee meetings and market liaison meetings". N.B.C's idea of discussion was for the committee to report the results of our ballot at our E.G.M when the points system received the lowest votes from traders, and then for N.B.C to tell us that they were using this same points system to allocate the stalls!

 As for the new rules on the guidelines concerning allocation, none of these have been discussed or agreed by the market traders committee. The committee were shown them the day before distribution and told that there was no time for a meeting to discuss them. It now seems council policy to ignore the wishes of the traders.

 When this committee worked with the previous council leaders we achieved a new market layout removing 70 permanently empty stalls and the rubbish compactor from the square, and had the backing of over 90% of the traders with regard to their new stall positions. N.B.C's new layout will bring back most of the useless stalls and removes permanently paid for stalls: Genius!

 Sadly it seems N.B.C have given up on Northampton market, despite according to the consultants report mentioning that the market grossed over £650,000 in 2007, giving just a measly £265,000 profit  ( compare this with the late 1980s, when £1 million pounds gross produced a massive £750,000 profit ), N.B.C feel the way forward is an events based market square. A new events manager will be employed at a cost of £30,000 to bring in an events programme. So far this consists of 2 rival markets and Mueller rice. This time of course the French and Italian markets will occupy the best spot on the market, while the traders who actually provide the council with money will be shoved out of the way.

 Events will occupy their half of the square 40 times a year according to N.B.C. Given their track record of 3 failed Christmas markets and the standing joke that used to be the popular Balloon festival, we're not confident. So far N.B.C haven't disclosed what will fill this huge space the other 220 market days of the year except for the food court which is expected to bring people in from far and wide. The all new food court will consist of a few tables and chairs, a high tensile cover (umbrella/gazebo) and an array of dining choices (the same tea wagons we already have, give or take the ones disliked by N.B.C).

 Whilst this may seem amusing, the sad facts are that N.B.C seem hell bent on destroying the market. Councillor Richard Church (Portfolio holder, regeneration and destruction of the town centre) often talks about the market square but never about the market itself.

 The decision to make the tea wagons tender for positions is disgusting. Market traders for many years paying rent faithfully, and then all of a sudden thrown off for doing nothing more than sell produce that N.B.C don't like. There have been 7 statements of interest concerning the 4 food court vacancies. This means we could have only 1 current food seller left from our 4 permanent traders, if the 3 new traders offer to "bung" the council more money.

 At our last Market liaison meeting Councillor Tim Hadland (former N.B.C leader) offered the advice that during these hard times the market should be left alone and the money spent making the current events area a success. This advice was met by applause from the committee who agreed with the idea, N.B.C however failed to minute that Councillor Hadland had spoken. Obviously we are not the only ones being ignored.

 It has become clear that N.B.C have no use for a market committee in the aspect of working together for the good of Northampton market. It only helps them to tick their boxes of jobs done. When asking for taxpayer's money from unelected quangos it helps to say you have discussed matters with traders even if you have ignored everything they have said.

 To make it clear, we were ignored during the consultation, we have been ignored during all meetings and the traders wishes recorded at the E.G.M were completely ignored by N.B.C. The council cannot see that the market reflects the state of the town itself. There are shops closing down daily but N.B.C is only interested in closing down Northampton market.

 There now seems very little point having a committee, which will be discussed on March the 18th when we will be holding the market traders A.G.M, where hopefully N.B.C will turn up to explain why your views don't count.

National Market Traders’ Federation Northampton Branch Newsletter, December 2008.

This newsletter contains the new stall layouts that Northampton Borough Council want to implement in mid March 2009. Also included is the oblong layout voted for at the market traders' EGM (See below). This was by far the most popular layout with 55 votes, and there were only 14 votes for the square layout which NBC want to implement.

 
Our layout has been rejected out of hand by the NBC, as they want their events space to be across the bottom half of the market square as denoted on the maps below.
The shaded stalls are what they call 'demountables'. The so-called 'Food Court' will not open until 31st October 2009, therefore leaving a huge gap on the worst days between the bottom of the market and Abington Street. We've endlessly stressed the importance of this but the only compromise is the erection and dismantling of the 'demountable' stalls on Fridays and Saturdays. The catering wagons will stay where they are until the 'Food Court' is built. This is supposed to be a semi-permanent feature with tables and chairs under it and supposedly taken down when there is a full-scale event. If and when the caterers have to move they will be required to tender for their own businesses. Unbelievable, especially as they have been classed as market traders for the many past years that they have traded. We are looking into the legality of this.

Attached is a voting form. If you are not happy with the NBC proposals and there is a majority vote against them we will start our campaign through the local press and petitioning our customers and the Northampton public the same as the last time this great market was under threat. Eamonn 'Fitzy' Fitzpatrick has volunteered to be our campaign manager and to organise the press and petitioning and any other methods that may be available to us (E.g.: TV News and local MPs). It is also possible to go through a legal process to stop this including what is called a judicial review. Obviously going down this route would cost money, so although we have quite substantial funds, enough to start a legal campaign, all traders must be aware that we might need donations from all traders for this to work. If the traders vote for this campaign then it has to be done properly so it is imperative that if we do take this route everyone is prepared to help to fund it. Obviously it might not come to that but we need to be prepared.

Also at our EGM, the stall allocation vote for who stands where, if and when the market is rearranged, was 46 votes for the method used the last time (i.e.: nearest to where you already stand, this had a 97% trader success rate; then 13 votes for seniority and only 8 votes for the points system. The council have once again ignored us and are going for the points system. This will mean first on the points picking where they want to stand, and so on down the list. With the square plan those traders below the five row cut-off line have to go somewhere, so some quite long-standing traders that are lower down the points table will have to go somewhere else. This will have a 'knock-on' effect all the way down the list and will without doubt cause a lot of ill feeling.

Enclosed is a voting form. Please fill it in as soon as possible and hand it in to any committee member.
(After a week the voting forms were collected and counted and showed a huge majority of traders were against the council's plans and in favour of a campaign to save the market).

Click Market Layouts below to see a PDF file of the proposed market layouts, including that preferred by the market traders:
Market Layouts.

Got any comments? Go to our Comments pages and let us know.

National Market Traders’ Federation Northampton Branch Newsletter September 2008
The purpose of this newsletter is to inform all traders of the results of the Extraordinary General Meeting held in the Guildhall on Wednesday 3rd September.

The votes cast on the night were added to the proxy votes cast by traders unable to attend, and the results were as follows-

Issue 1: Do we want the layout suggested?
Option A: 14 votes.     Option B: 55 votes.
Therefore Option B, the alternative layout, will be the layout suggested to NBC. They can of course ignore our suggestions, so it was advised that courses of action such as using the press for public support, and as a last resort and with the support of the NMTF, long term legal action could be undertaken. This could obviously become very expensive.
A show of hands was asked for to see if traders would be willing to pay for this option, and it was carried unanimously. In the unlikely event of legal action being taken, traders who were not at the meeting would of course be asked to contribute.

Issue 2: How should the move be conducted?
Option A: 8 votes.     Option B: 13 votes.     Option C: 46 votes.
Therefore Option C, closest to current position will be advised as our preference of movement. Please note that should NBC choose to ignore our suggested layout and insist on their own layout, the committee would ask this question again to the traders. Any placing of traders onto stalls will be conducted by Market officials, not by your committee.

Issue 3: Removal of all stalls for large scale events?
Option A: 3 votes.     Option B: 65 votes.
Therefore option B, ‘No, the traders are not prepared to move for events under any circumstances’ will be conveyed to NBC at our next meeting.
The committee would like to thank all those traders who attended the EGM for their time, and remind those that did not attend, that you cannot moan if you don’t vote! Any further developments will be passed on to you all as and when we get them.

Results of survey by Pleydell Smithyman

The results of this Survey have also been published in the NMTF

Northampton Branch Newsletter, March 2008

These are the main results of the survey sent out to the Northampton market traders recently by Pleydell Smithyman. 82 stallholders were sent copies of a questionnaire, 40 were returned, of that 75% were traders of 11 or more years standing, and these 30 traders represent the hardcore of Northampton market and therefore probably provide a true reflection of the results of this survey. Featured in here are the most important questions in the order that they were published. Any trader wishing to read the full report can do so at Rutherfords stall (stall nos .87-90 Tue to Sat).

This report was presented to us at The Market Square Operation & Business Plan meeting on 27^th February 2008.

67.5% of traders dissatisfied with how the market looks.

75.5% of traders satisfied with stalls provided.

85%  of traders dissatisfied with toilet facilities.

Reasons for trading on Northampton Market?

77.5%  Convenient location

70%   Quality type of stall

80%  of traders believe that the market square is a focal point in the town

97.5% of traders feel that the market square is an important part of the heritage of the town centre.

60% feel that the market square reflects the needs of the community to a large extent.

57.5% feel that the market square is not actively or effectively promoted.

80% believe that the location of the market square in the town centre attracts visitors to the town.

70% believe that the available parking is not attractive to visitors.

Promotional Campaign

50% think this will make a large positive difference

40% think this will make a small positive difference

Subsidised parking for shoppers

85% think this will make a large positive difference.

10% think this will make a small positive difference

72.5% agree modern removable stalls would have a large negative effect on their business

70% agree that demountable stalls would have the same negative effect.

(what is the difference between the two anyway?)

72.5% say that better transport links would make a positive difference.

77.5% say that Park & Ride would make a positive difference.

52.5% want to change the existing layout to encourage improved footfall.

Number of events on market square

40% say too little

25% say too much

22.5% don’t know

7.5% say the number of events is just right.

Do visitor numbers to your stall increase during events?

65% say no.

32.5% say yes

Does the amount of money you take increase during events?

70% say no.

25% say yes.

Would you be willing to trade temporarily from a different location to enable an event to take place?

87.5% say no

10% say yes

This is the key question of the whole survey, bearing in mind the 40 replies we received the yes vote only constitutes 4 traders. As a result of this the next part of the question on alternative venue is irrelevant.

Would you be willing to move your stall to Abington Street?

75% answer no.

17.5% permanently

5% temporarily.

Here again another key question answered almost as emphatically as the last one. Once again remember that 17.5% is only 7 traders.

If demountable stalls were introduced on the market what impact would they have?

A large negative difference was the highest score across the board.

Which of the following events would most complement the market square?

55% think themed markets would most complement the market square

45% think family orientated events.

Concerts, Fashion shows and Fun fairs all scored below 10%. Several traders mentioned that noise related to such events make it near impossible to serve their customers.

Taking into account your previous answers, please tell us your views on the following statements.

The existing market and stalls should remain unchanged.

62.5% agree

20% disagree (8 traders)

7.5% have no opinion

The existing market and stalls layout should be changed to encourage more use and access.

50% agree

32.5% disagree

10% have no opinion

The existing market and stalls should be changed to accommodate other types of use e.g. events.

67.5% disagree

15% agree (6 traders)

12.5% no opinion

Again a key question answered emphatically.

Part of the existing market and stalls should be moved to Abington Street to be nearer the high street shops.

75% disagree

15% agree (6 traders)

7.5% no opinion

Probably the most important question showing that the vast majority of those asked do not want either the existing weather proof stalls or themselves moved off the market square.

Are the six traders who want to move the same 6 each time? Perhaps they could be the guinea pigs to be moved to the top of Abington Street (which is where the move would be to), and tell us how they get on. 

Also presented were more preliminary findings amongst those quoted were finding that although the market is fundamentally profitable the decline reflects national trends, although the costs are under control the falling revenue is a core problem.

To us the two biggest problems which the committee have repeatedly brought up at meeting after meeting are quote “Failure to reinvest and develop the business equals falling attendance and adopt a realistic promotion and advertising budget”.

The final report was supposed to have been delivered by 11^th March 2008. This was moved to 4^th April 2008. At the National Market Traders Federation Northampton Branch Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 16^th April 2008 at the Guildhall, Northampton, traders unanimously voted for staying on the Market Square, and for opposing any attempts to move them into the streets of the town centre.