The market traders are victims of Tory discomfort
IT IS disturbing to hear that market traders have been told recently that the Market Hall is closing, or finished.
This is at least two months before the full council debates whether to proceed with its property proposals, and before formal consultation with the market traders or the public has taken place.
This totally prejudges the issue, and makes it impossible to have any meaningful discussion about it.
I can report that not one of the traders is willing to move into Fox Yard.
As for the public, apart from the 9,000 petitioners who have expressed their wish for the Market Hall to stay as it is, there have been 28 letters so far in this newspaper supporting the traders.
No doubt there will be others.
There have been only two letters in support of the proposals, from four Tory councillors in pairs, who might be considered as biased in favour. One of those was not even present at the council meeting which agreed to move the proposal forward.
Meanwhile there is opposition also from the Civic Society, the Historical Society, and the Market Harborough Garden Club who use the hall for their annual show, as well as the Market Harborough Independent Retailers Association representing some 200 independent traders in the town.
Councillor Rook says that the council has to do what is best for all its taxpayers.
But its taxpayers are also its customers and its residents who use the local facilities including parks, playgrounds, shops, libraries, car parks, toilets and, yes, the Market Hall.
He says that the public told the council last year in no uncertain terms that moving the council offices would not be favoured.
Well, the public is now telling him even more emphatically that it values its market hall and traders, and their contribution to the variety of shopping that the town boasts.
The problems with the present council offices that Councillors King and Pain (letters, Jan 19) list have nothing whatever to do with the Market Hall or its traders.
It may be a neat solution to sell or lease the Market Hall to pay for the scheme, but it is extremely unfair that the market traders, who are in no way to blame for the council’s financial difficulties, should be the victims of Tory discomfort.
The council should look for an alternative solution instead of clinging to what seems to be a predetermined outcome.
David Johnson,
Hillside Road,
Harborough.
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Friday 18 May 2012
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