Opposition slams 'rude, reckless and disgraceful' plans for new Northampton Market Square

The opposition has slammed reopening plans for Northampton’s Market Square following a £12 million refurbishment.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has published its ‘Northampton Markets Development Plan’ which is set to go before cabinet on May 7.

Market traders will be charged £15 a day for a pop up tent stall, £30 a day to go in one of the new cabins, and £30 a day for mobile food units.

However, the West Northants Labour Group has slammed the Conservative-led council’s plans, which can be viewed here.

Shadow Cabinet Member for Town Centre Regeneration and Growth, Councillor Koulla Jolley said: “The council’s plans for Northampton Market once it reopens at Market Square are presumptive, expensive and hazardous. Not to mention unfair and downright rude to existing traders and ludicrously expensive to the taxpayer.

“The Northampton Markets Development Plan includes bringing in private specialist market operators, different markets on different days, and rules than mean non-permanent stalls will have to be packed away at the end of every day, costing the taxpayer £40,000 a year alone.

“The outcomes of the disastrous decision to move the market to Commercial Street are clear. Not only has it cost traders, but in the last year alone WNC lost £273k on operation costs. Plans admit that the expensive events put on to encourage people to the market were only attended ‘when the sun shone’ and had ‘very little effect’ on traders’ income.

“In 2022, traders were told they couldn’t move to Abington Street because works were due to take place there at the same time as Market Square. But works have only begun in the past few weeks, while traders have been scraping a living in Commercial Street for well over a year.

“Now, the council is insulting the traders even more. The plans promise existing eligible traders will be given business training and a mentor, and a period of six months rent-free on food trucks and non-permanent stalls. But there are no details of who is eligible.

“Priority over stalls will be given to traders who submit a business plan on how they would add to the success of the market, while existing ‘core’ traders are described as ‘diluted’ and who ‘undermine’ the market’s ‘character’. The cost of renting a stall has also increased (tripled for food trucks) and traders will be expected to pay for their own electricity and waste removal.

“Then there are the fantastical ideas of holding up to 26 ‘specialist and event’ markets every year, run by independent operators. These are supposedly designed to help support ‘core’ traders, but inevitably all they will do is take customers away.

“The final blow is the cost of all this to the taxpayer. Not including the cost of needlessly taking down stalls every day, the initial annual cost of running the market will put WNC back £329,000 a year. What is worse, the council is projected to make a loss every year until 2030 (when it still loses £18,000). How they dare demand traders to create business plans when they clearly cannot make their own is disgraceful.

“These plans just continue what the Tory administration has always wanted: to kill off the existing market traders and replace them with private sector-run specialist markets, where none of the money is poured back into the local economy.

“These plans are rude. They are reckless. They need a rethink. The market is the heart of Northampton, so why is WNC playing roulette with its future?”

The council continues to say that the Market Square will reopen in ‘late summer’ 2024.

Click here to read the report in full.