'Angry' longstanding trader blasts council over cabin allocation at Northampton's £12 million Market Square

Hung Vo, who has been running a stall in the centre of Northampton for 20 years, has blasted West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) over its allocation of cabins at the new Market Square.

The council recently announced that the historic Market Square will reopen on Friday, September 20, as contractor Stepnell finish up £12 million regeneration work.

As part of the extensive refurbishment, traders will have access to new bespoke, fixed cabin stalls which can be optimised to meet the needs of traders as well as pop up stalls.

An email seen by this newspaper from WNC Chief Executive Anna Earnshaw to Hung Vo states that the past 18 months traders have been down at Commercial Street has not been taken into account.

The email reads: “Stalls were allocated in accordance with the allocation policy. The allocation policy is included in the original market rules and regulations, which allocate points based on length of service, number of paid stalls per day, and number of days of trading. The date used for the calculation of points was up to January 31 2023, as this was the date of the market relocation. Leading up to and during the temporary market relocation, all traders had the opportunity to find alternative pitches. We appreciate that the displacement wasn’t the choice of traders, as it was imposed upon them, which is why we’ve considered the length of tenure to January 2023 rather than including the period of the market relocation to Commercial Street.”

Reacting, Hung said: “They've put us down here for 18 months and they say it doesn't count. I'm angry. It's wrong. You should look after the people who support the market, not abandon them. Most of the time it's only been me and Les here. Ask the public if they think it's right. We've stayed down here for 18 months and suffered like hell.”

Hung has had to sell his house to cover his losses in the last year and a half as his takings are down by 80 per cent.

The fruit and vegetable trader has instead been allocated a cabin next to the former Market Walk shopping centre, which is earmarked to be turned into a STACK entertainment venue.

He said: “I don't want to stand next to an event area like STACK. In the past, I've been there, people just stand [blocking] your stall. You can't trade. Secondly, the construction works will affect business.”

WNC responded confirming it has only taken into account the disruption caused to traders up until January 31 2023.

A council spokeswoman said: “In order to ensure that the process is as equal as possible, we have followed a process which takes into account the disruption caused by the temporary relocation, length of service on Northampton Market and their business plan. Based on this, we have done all we can to offer traders their first or second choice of pitch, and support them during this transition period. We are working with traders to fitout their stalls ahead of opening.”