'Desperate' Northampton market trader considers selling his home due to struggling business at temporary location

A ‘desperate’ Northampton market trader says he is considering selling his home because his business is struggling.

It has been nearly six months since market traders were moved down to the Commercial Street car park by West Northants Council (WNC).

In those six months, traders have reported low footfall and a lack of support from WNC, with around six stalls already quitting the site.

Chron and Echo went down to the site on Wednesday (July 26) to catch up with some of the main stall holders.

Hung Vo, who runs his own fruit and vegetable stall, said: “I don’t think we’ll last. I’ll give it until December and see how it goes. This time of year is supposed to be ever so busy. This is the best time of year but down here we’re doing nothing. We’re losing and losing money. I don’t know how much longer we can last. I’ve lost £15,000 so far since we moved here – it’s crazy.

"I’m having to put my house on the market to sell it because I can’t afford the mortgage, I’m behind at the moment. How would they feel if they had to put their house up for sale?

"I feel sick of it. I can’t go on like this. No matter what happens, they [WNC] still get paid. Would they go to work on Sundays? Why do I have to go to work seven days a week to cover this situation? No one works seven days a week unless they’re desperate.

"I’m hanging on. It’s been six months. Will we last another year [until the Market Square reopens]? By November, if it stays like this, I’ll have to make a decision.

"Up the Market Square we lose money two weeks of the year, down here we’re losing money nearly every week.

“If you’ve got a family and your job is jeopardised like this, how would you feel? I guarantee 20 people have lost their jobs on the market so far.”

The council has recently announced it has a £150,000 war chest to spend on initiatives to help increase footfall at the market.

Initiatives have included a free taxi service between the bus station and the temporary market for customers, a sand beach for families to play in on site and free parking for one hour for customers.

However, Mr Vo says he would prefer financial help in the form of compensation from the council.

He said: “They say they haven’t got money but they managed to find £150,000. Why can’t they help us with that instead of putting events on? We want help to get through the bad period, certainly the winter time. If two of the big stalls pull out there’ll be nothing here.

"The taxis, no one wants to come down here. The beach down there, what can that give to us? Nothing. And some of the events, like the antiques fair, it’s only one day, it wasn’t organised by the council either. One day is not enough.”

Glyn Walters, from M&G Butchers, has been working at Northampton market for nearly 50 years and said the taxi service has done ‘nothing whatsoever to help’.

Mr Walter said: “It’s shocking. We’d be very fortunate to be here next year [when the Market Square is complete]. The best weeks we have is when we break even.”

Fruit and vegetable vendor Mick Andreoli echoed his fellow traders’ opinions, saying that the initiatives put on by the council are just ‘lip service’ until the traders businesses ‘die silently’ down at Commercial Street.

A WNC spokeswoman said: “WNC is working in collaboration with the traders to listen to and respond to their concerns, and those raised by the public, this includes developing a free events programme in partnership with traders to attract additional visitors to Commercial Street.

"The taxi initiative has been in place for a week, and has provided a number of journeys from the bus station to the market. WNC continues to work with the provider to monitor usage of this trial, and the impact this has to address concerns raised regarding accessibility to the temporary location from the town centre.”