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The question might be raised, over a year after the market has been moved against the wishes of the majority of the traders, and against the wishes of the 11,000 shoppers who signed our petition, whether or not we still need to ‘Save the Market’?
The answer must be decidedly yes, we do. During the year since the move Northampton Market has seen quite a number of traders leave, including some very well-established traders of many years standing. We have seen that many traders are still some 25% - 35% down on their trading income before the move, and that not a few traders are struggling to keep their heads above water financially. Some traders have given up stalls on some days, and some have gone to seek better markets elsewhere.
There are now more empty stalls on the market than at any time since the move. Even Saturday, once the most sought-after day of the week, now has almost as many empty stalls as most days, and more than some.
The much-vaunted Friday and Saturday events put on by the Liberal Democrat council have not brought in a noticeable increase in shoppers to the general market, although to be fair the catering trade does better when people come in to see a free event. People who come in to see a free event can usually afford to eat and drink, even if they’ve not got cash for anything else. Interestingly some of the best-attended and most popular events have been the evening ones, usually music events which take place after the traders have packed and gone for the day. Such events are popular with the traders too, because there is no disruption to the trading day.
Hopefully the early spate of noisy daytime events are now a thing of the past, after many protests from the traders. Noisy events pull people out of the market to go down and watch the event, and now this seems to have been officially accepted, if not officially acknowledged.
The traders are willing to work alongside the council’s events team in giving advice and helping where possible to promote events that do not threaten trade on the market. But traders are aware that these events will only go on for another 12 months or so, until the funding runs out. What then? NBC has an optimistic hope that by then businesses will actually pay to regularly put on events in the bottom of the market square, so NBC can achieve some kind of income from this large waste area. Even if the recession does not continue this hope is unlikely to come to anything; if the recession continues there will be no chance.
More recently a tight management adherence to a few ill-conceived new rules has seen a great deal of unrest, and has required a tactful but firm response from the market traders’ committee.
So looking at most of the above, we see that there are still very good reasons for being alert to anything that threatens the existence of the market, and that we still need to continue to try to “Save the Market” from an early demise.
For a look in our archives about the ‘Save the Market’ campaign, go here: Campaign Archives.
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