Traders speak out about 'surviving' and 'sacrificing' seven months after being kicked off Northampton's Market Square

Three veteran traders have spoken out about ‘surviving’ and ‘sacrificing’ down at the temporary home of Northampton’s market.

It’s been seven months since traders were kicked off Market Square and on to Commercial Street car park while West Northants Council completes £10million improvement works to the historic site in the heart of the town.

Chron and Echo spoke to Hung Vo, who runs a fruit and vegetable stall, Lesley Rutherford, who runs a key cutting stall, and Nick Walters, from M&G Butchers.

Hung Vo said: “It’s absolutely useless down here. There’s about three stalls here today. It’s useless. The council said they had the money. They found £150k but they wasted it on entertainment. There’s nobody down here. What’s the point of spending that kind of money on entertainment. It didn’t help at all. There was a juggler; what kind of entertainment is that? It’s crazy. It’s disgraceful. They don’t care.”

Hung recently revealed he has had to put his house up for sale due to the struggles at work.

He said: “I feel disgusted. Why do I have to put my house up for sale? Why is my job on the line? How would you feel if you’re working the whole month and your wage goes down by 50 per cent – would you work? I have to. It’s wrong. If they don’t finish the works on time I don’t think there will be many people from here going back up there. May, June, July is supposed to be our busiest time; it was terrible down here.”

Nick from M&G Butchers said the move back up to the refurbished Market Square ‘can’t come quick enough’.

He said: “It can’t come quick enough until we’re back on the market – it needs to be quicker. We can’t imagine a winter here. It’s going to be tough but we’re holding on because we want to get back on the market, desperately. “The summer is normally our busiest time but there’s limited people coming down here. We’re trying. We’ll keep trying. We’re determined to go back at whatever cost. We’re not doing well now but we’re going to hang on. “We’ve had to cut wages by 60 per cent. Everything you can think of we’re sacrificing just to hold on. I wish someone of importance would come down and have a look at the state of it.”

Lesley Rutherford said his attitude towards the temporary move has always been to survive.

He said: “It’s still as poor as it was down here. It’s never going to get any better because we’re never going to get closer to the town centre. That’s the problem we’ve got, we’re in the wrong location, and we’ve been saying that since day one. So it’s not going to change now. We’re just surviving. That has been the attitude ever since we came down here. The council put on events to help us but they were a waste of time. We’re literally surviving from week to week. We’ve made lots of sacrifices to stay open. Surviving is all we can do. We’ve been told at our last meeting with WNC that the Market Square works are still on track to finish on time.”

Conservative councillor Daniel Lister, the man in charge of the Market Square project at WNC, said: “WNC is working in collaboration with the traders to listen to and respond to their concerns, and those raised by the public. Throughout the summer we have delivered a free events progamme in partnership with traders to provide activities for all ages, and this is being extended to offer free activities on Saturdays throughout September.

“This is further supported by the free taxi initiative which provides free journeys from the bus station to the market to increase connectivity. WNC continues to work with traders to review the effectiveness of these activities and how it can support traders at the temporary relocation before they move to new stalls at the revitalised Market Square. It is essential to move the market to a temporary location to allow for the refurbishment at Market Square to take place, and we would encourage everyone to support local and visit the traders at Commercial Street.”