Anger over plans to alter market stalls
Disagreement continues to rage between market traders and the leaders of Northampton Borough Council over the future of the town's historic Market Square.
The council denied rumours it planned to remove all the traditional metal and wood stalls from the square, but admitted some of the old stalls would be removed and replaced with new structures which could be taken down more easily.
Outspoken fruit and veg salesman Eamonn Fitzpatrick, who condemned the idea in his online blog, said the move would only damage the market.
Criticising the new, light-weight stalls, he added: "These pop up stalls are totally unsuitable for a lot of the traders on the market.
"And taking more of the old-style stalls down is just going to push us closer to extinction. It's a complete disgrace in my opinion."
The council announced 1.3 million plans to reorganise the Market Square and create the current entertainment area in February last year.
A further 250,000 is also due to be spent soon on installing coloured floodlights to buildings around the square and work is currently under way to install a 98,000 fountain at the square's entrance.
Original plans to also create a 100-seat food court for the market were scrapped following talks with traders.
A spokesman for Northampton Borough Council yesterday confirmed some of the square's older stalls would be removed temporarily in June to make way for a special event.
She also admitted some of the older stalls could be replaced in the future, but denied the overall number would decrease.
She said: "We're not replacing our market stalls.
"We have been in talks with stallholders to discuss the temporary removal of up to three rows of stalls to accommodate a music event in June, although we need to finalise the details for this.
"While we are looking to replace more of the old, semi-permanent stalls with the new demountables to increase the flexibility of the space on non-market days and in the evenings, there are no proposals to remove all of the stalls."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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