Why couldn't struggling market traders be moved on to Abington Street in Northampton for the past year?

Chronicle and Echo has asked West Northants Council (WNC) why market traders could not have moved on to Abington Street for the past year – here’s what they said.

Market traders were moved down to Commercial Street car park in January 2023 while £10m refurbishment works of the Market Square take place.

Traders have been struggling down at the remote location for a year now, with many traders closing down, forced into debt or even having to sell their homes.

Chronicle and Echo and you – our readers –have continuously asked WNC why traders could not have been moved on to Abington Street instead of Commercial Street.

WNC has always said it simply can’t be done citing the £5million public realm works in Abington Street and Fish Street.

But these works have only just started this week (February 26), so surely traders could have been on Abington Street for a year?

Traders on Abington Street

Fruit and vegetable trader Hung Vo previously said: “We mentioned Abington Street every time at the meetings before we even moved down here. They told us we couldn’t go on Abington Street because of the works and we’d be in the way of Tesco’s deliveries.

“They’ve done nothing in Abington Street. I feel sick. If we were in Abington Street we’d still have businesses on the market. I’d still have my house. Look how many people have lost their jobs since coming down here: 10 regular five day a week traders all finished.

"Have any councillors ever been down to look at what’s going on? I haven’t seen them. I would show them what they’ve done if they came down. I'd like to see them [WNC] work a month without getting paid.”

Hung is currently on vacation reportedly because he was not making any money due to a lack of footfall.

Les Rutherford, who runs LJB Rutherfords full-time key cutting stall on the market, said: “I don’t think the council has done enough. They said we couldn’t go on Abington Street because they’ll be doing works at the same time but nothing’s happening with Abington Street and we’ve been here [Commercial Street] a year and they’ve done nothing. It’s all too late now. Yes, we could have gone Abington Street but they didn’t want to put us there. I think down here was the easiest and cheapest option.

"It feels like Groundhog Day every day. Nothing ever changes and it's not going to. It will be exactly the same until we go up to the Market Square. It's depressing. It's been a very stressful year.”

Before his death in November 2022, town legend and veteran trader Eamonn ‘Fitzy’ Fitzpatrick foresaw most of what has unfolded in the past year.

In February 2022, Fitzy said: “What they're going to do, after all these years, they're just going to wipe us out. They've got it all wrong. It's got to be the biggest mistake the Tories have ever made in this town, and they've made a few.

"It's heartless. Uncaring. I'm absolutely gutted. They haven’t taken into consideration how the public of Northampton feel about this, they are horrified.

"I gave them different sites around the town but they dismissed them saying it'll cost too much money – what a load of nonsense.

“Boris sent them £8 million to revamp the market and reinvent the town centre, not to put us out of business.

"I've forgotten more than they know about markets. I'm not being big-headed. I promise you, they've got it all wrong and you’ll see. I could go on all day. I never thought it'd end like this. I feel sick as a parrot."

WNC response

Chronicle and Echo asked WNC: It appears traders could have been given space on Abington Street for a year as only a very minor part of Abington Street is closed off for the Fish Street works. What would the council say to this?

WNC responded, saying: “Our position regarding the market relocation remains the same.”

What is WNC’s position?

In June 2023, WNC said:

• As part of the initial discussions regarding the temporary relocation of the market, Abington Street was considered as a location and more recently was reviewed again.

• However, we have substantial funding from the Government to deliver major improvements along Abington St from where it meets the market up to Wellington Street. These works need to commence this financial year to complete them within the timescales required within the funding agreement.

• On the section of Abington that is open to traffic, this would require Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) to close this, which is a separate statutory process and wouldn’t have been likely to have been achieved ahead of the Market Square redevelopment works being completed.

• No one location within Abington Street could accommodate all the market traders, therefore a secondary location would have been required. Furthermore, there is no trader vehicle parking close by, and delivery routes need to be maintained. Therefore, Commercial Street provided the only viable option and was agreed by cabinet in January 2023.

Compensation

In June, WNC promised to spend £150,000 on events in a bid to increase footfall at the site.

Many traders have since criticised the events saying they don’t bring footfall to the market.

Fruit and vegetable vendor Dave Dunkley previously said: “We were hoping we would get some form of compensation. They told us they have £150,000 to put events on, why can’t some of that be used as compensation? £5,000 for each trader who stands six days a week and then return to Market Square when it’s finished.”

The council rejected the idea of compensation to traders, saying ‘we do not think this is right action and would not be appropriate spend of public money’.

It was recently revealed by this newspaper that WNC has spent £40,000 on entertainment to attract footfall at the temporary market – including £21,000 on an ice rink, £6,000 on a crazy golf course, £10,000 on a fake beach, £700 on a Ninja Turtle character walkabout, £200 on Born To Perform adults with disabilities sign language tuition, and more.