'Disheartened' Northampton market traders calling on council to confirm moving date after project pushed back

“Disheartened” market traders in Northampton are calling on the council to finally give them a moving date so they can start to plan the futures of their businesses.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has still not given traders an exact moving date to Commercial Street car park while £8.4 million refurbishment works take place on Market Square.

In July, councillors confirmed that the project due to start in August was being put on hold until January 2023. The traders say they have not heard anything from WNC.

Fruit and vegetable trader Joe Fitzpatrick said: "We're being pushed aside. We had three different moving dates last year.

"We've got customers coming up to us saying they want to know when we're moving, but we don't know. We want answers.

"We think it's a shambles of a project. We've been treated with no respect all the way through.

"Last year no staff booked holidays with their families because no-one knew what was going on and where our future lied. We just want to know a date just so we can start planning.”

Florist Elliott Jones, who also runs a busy stall on the square, said he feels like traders are being “led down the garden path” by WNC.

He said: "It's unfair. It's all proving very, very worrying. It's poor on every single level. We're disheartened. We just need a plan.

"I'm very, very worried there will be no market [to come back to] at all. WNC might start it but not finish it.”

Elliott added that he has asked WNC for a letter of intent saying the traders can come back but that this has also been ignored.

"We were promised it but we've not had it. So you can only draw one conclusion – they don't want us back on the market," he said.

WNC has been contacted for comment and was asked: When will there be a moving date confirmed? What is the latest on Commercial Street Car Park? When is building work set to start on Market Square?

Cllr Daniel Lister, Cabinet Member town centre regeneration and growth, said: “Planning permission has been applied for and this will be discussed at a meeting of the council’s planning committee on Tuesday (10 January), after the decision was deferred from December’s meeting.

“It would be wrong for us to prejudge the committee’s decision, which is why we have not yet confirmed any definite timescales, but we are continuing to liaise with traders and will provide an update after the meeting next week.”