Council responds to 'angry' Northampton market traders whose businesses continue to struggle at 'death row' car park

The council has responded to “angry” Northampton market traders struggling to make ends meet down at a controversial car park likened to a “graveyard”.

It has been a year since traders were moved off of the historic Market Square and down to Commercial Street car park, dubbed “death row car park” by the late Eamonn Fitzpatrick.

The move came so West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) could plough on with £10 million refurbishment works to the Market Square, which includes new paving, new bespoke stalls and a new water feature.

The Chronicle & Echo went down to Commercial Street car park at 2pm on Tuesday (January 9) to ask traders for their year in review.

To help traders cope at Commercial Street, WNC offered free rent and has spent thousands of taxpayer money putting on entertainment to try and attract footfall – but this has been heavily criticised by traders.

On the Chron’s arrival, one trader said: “Look at this. It looks like a graveyard. More people visit a graveyard.”

Nick Walters, of M&G Butchers, which has been serving the town for nearly 50 years, said it has been “shocking”.

Fruit and vegetable vendor Hung Vo says he has had to sell his house to keep himself and his employees going.

Mick Andreoli, who has been trading fruit and veg on the market for 58 years, says his year has been “disheartening”.

Responding to these established traders, WNC started by saying it is “delighted” with the progress being made at the Market Square.

A WNC spokeswoman said: “We are delighted to see the progress being made in the regeneration of our historic market square alongside the proposed STACK leisure complex set which will provide a diverse mix of family entertainment, food and drink. This combined investment of over £20m will see both footfall and the leisure economy in Northampton town centre rocket, attracting people and further investment.

"WNC continues to work in collaboration with the traders and listen to and respond to their concerns and opportunities, as well as those raised by the public. As with many retailers and hospitality venues, January tends to be a quieter month following the festive season and footfall is lower, and as a result many traders choose to take a break during January and February. However we were pleased to see a 16% increase in stalls occupied in the 2 weeks before Christmas as we extended our free events programme throughout December with family ice-skating and curling following the free summer events which took place during the summer holidays. We are also continuing to work with Bounds to offer free taxi journeys from the bus station to the market.

“Since the market relocation to Commercial Street in 2022, we have seen traders leave the market but are also encouraged by the 8 new businesses that have started up. We acknowledge that even the most successful markets lose and gain traders regularly as people’s circumstances change and we are pleased that 2 traders continue trading in the Grosvenor Centre with a view to returning to the market in the future.

“We have always acknowledged that the temporary move would be challenging but was necessary in order to make the much-needed change which will benefit the entire town and as such we continue to support those businesses in the belief that the new market will be a great place to do business.

“We look forward to continuing to work with all town centre traders and businesses to keep them informed throughout the process and look forward to opening this new, exciting and rejuvenated space for everyone to enjoy this summer.”

Click here to see why market traders could not be moved to Abington Street.

The ignored petition…

Before the moved started, Eamonn ‘Fitzy’ Fitzpatrick managed to collect a staggering 16,000 signatures on his physical petition to ‘Save The Market’ from being moved to Commercial Street.

Conservative councillor Daniel Lister, who is in charge of the Market Square plans, responded to Fitzy's petition by saying there are “209,000 other residents in the town who have not signed it and don't agree”.

Traders’ view…

Yesterday (Wednesday January 9), fruit and veg vendor Hung Vo said: “Can you ask the council to come down here and have a look what’s going on. Since we moved down here we haven’t seen any of them. They won’t dare come down here to have a look. I don’t think we’ll survive until late summer. I hope the council reads this and does something to help us. The events they put on don’t work.”

It is not yet known if the council will act upon the repeated requests for help from Hung Vo or other traders.

On the free rent and entertainment, Hung Vo said: “Free rent doesn’t matter if you’ve got no customers. Entertainment doesn’t help. Are children at an ice rink going to come and shop at the market? We told the council entertainment doesn’t help. They don’t listen. Would the council treat their family members like this if they owned businesses? I don’t think so.”

Butcher Mick said: "If you’re not taking any money, then free rent’s no good. I’d rather be up in the town. I’d like to pay rent, work hard and make a profit. This is not how it should be.”

On the eight new businesses at the site…

Hung Vo said: “Where did they get that figure from?"

Fruiter Mick said: “The new businesses aren’t businesses, they’re bits and bobs people. They come here at 11am, throw a few bits on and go home at 2pm. Their business is a hobby, my business is supposed to be a living. I’ll do 12 hours a day, they’ll do three. If there wasn’t free rent here they wouldn’t come."

Butcher Nick said: “It’s news to me. I haven’t seen eight businesses open here. It’s just the original ones left, the ones who have been on the market for years, and we’re all hanging on, struggling.”

The council did not release a list of the businesses which have opened and closed in the past year despite this newspaper’s request.

Other affected businesses…

Another business that has been affected by the refurbishment works is Praca Portuguese Coffee, based in Market Square. The business, owned by Renato Melo, sits right next to 10 ft hoardings covering up the construction site on the square.

Renato said: “It affects us because we don’t have that many customers now. Now we just have regulars. No one else is coming. It’s more quiet. We’ve lost more than 40% revenue over the last year. And now WNC is going to move the barriers so we can’t have seats outside, so it’s going to get even harder. WNC hasn’t told us when or for how long, so we can’t even plan our business. It's very important, the space outside. Soon it is gone.

"I’ve asked for compensation for the revenue lost, WNC said there’s no such thing. Costs are going up, my income is going down and they don’t want to compensate. It is very hard. We don’t know whether to plan for next year, if you can make it to next year. I hope they will finish the market this year, but I don’t think they will. I don’t believe it will be done by the summer. If I don’t have the seating outside for the summer, it will be very bad.”

Chron and Echo has covered the traders’ struggles extensively…