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Traders: ‘Leave our market alone’
Petition...John Cleaver and Jane Cleaver with supporters Pat Dunkley, Kerry Noble, Christine Noble and Janet Gee inside Harborough indoor market. (Picture: Andrew Carpenter/001384-13)
TRADERS at the market hall have vowed to fight to stay there after Harborough District Council admitted it was considering using the hall as its own new HQ.
The council is looking at options to move out of its Adam and Eve Street offices, including to the market hall, as part of cost-cutting measures.
But people have reacted angrily to the suggestions with floods of supporters signing a petition started up to save the market hall from closure.
Steve Wyant, who runs the cafe at the market hall, said: “We’ve got 3,000 names in just four days, which I think you could say is very good.
“These 3,000 people can obviously see the potential of our market. Nobody but nobody wants it to close – the only person who wants it to close is Cllr Michael Rook [the council leader].”
The council offices are said to need £4million of investment and council leader Michael Rook has said the building has twice the floor space needed by the authority.
John Cleaver, vice chairman of the market traders body, said of stallholders: “They are going to fight it and they want to stay in the market hall. It is a purpose built hall and it gets the council a profit.”
He added that the support shown for their petition has been overwhelming and he cannot imagine the council acting against the taxpayers on this matter. However he was frustrated by a lack of communication and consultation from the authority.
“It seems to be driving a wedge between us. They don’t consult us or tell us what is happening,” Mr Cleaver added. David Johnson, of Hillside Road, said: “It cannot be right to treat the market hall as just one of the council’s financial assets to be redeployed in the latest political or budgetary merry-go-round.
Mr Johnson further criticised the council for failing the market through rent increases and the closure of its toilets.
Other residents have argued against the move in view of the long-standing tradition of market trading in the town.
In a letter to the Mail, a stallholder of 53 years, Mr Wainwright, said: “Market Harborough is what it suggests: a market town with a Royal Charter which should be exploited to its maximum.”
A spokesman for the council said: “We are not going to close the market in Harborough. We have a firm commitment, and political desire to provide a market in the town.
“But we also have a duty to local people to consider how efficiently the space at market hall is currently being used and whether we might use it more efficiently in the future.
“Emerging findings from our review suggest that this space could be rented for quarter of a million pounds each year and it currently returns just £35,000 for local tax payers.
“It’s too early to take any decisions about market hall, but it’s our duty to at least ask whether this is a situation that best serves local people for the future.”
Copies of the petition will be available to sign at the Mail offices from tomorrow.
You can also sign the petition by going into the market hall on Northampton Road.
To read more views on the market hall see the letters page.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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