Silenced by council, fruit and veg trader who’s as loud as a chainsaw
… and his name? Mr Bellows!
FOR 80 years, Wayne Bellows’ family of market traders have shouted their wares to shoppers in their seaside town.
But now Mr Bellows has been told he must keep quiet on his fruit and vegetable stall – following a complaint from a single neighbour.
The 53-year-old was branded a noise nuisance after his cries were found to reach 111 decibels – the same as a chainsaw or a rock concert.
Mr Bellows, a fourth-generation stallholder, has been trading at the Saturday market in Lymington, Hampshire, for 35 years.
At first, the father-of-three was told not to shout before lunch, but now he has been ordered to stop altogether.
Yesterday he said: ‘The council said they had a phone call from a woman saying we were making so much noise shouting. The official said it was under some sort of noise pollution regulation.
‘ The council more or less said, “Don’t shout early in the morning until lunchtime.” But now they don’t want me to shout at all.
‘The market has been there for hundreds of years and now someone moves into the high street and decides they do not like the noise. It is part and parcel of street life. It’s part of the atmosphere.
‘I’m the fourth-generation trader in my family and have been paying good money to stand there every week, and the council do not do anything for us really – though they have just put up the rent.
‘The market is a dying trade because of supermarkets selling produce cheaper than we can buy it and undercutting us.
‘If stall-holders cannot shout, then you lose part of the tradition of a market – it’s all about using your voice to encourage people to come over. If I don’t shout out I’m going to be at least 30 to 40 per cent down on profit. The other stall-holders don’t really need to shout, but with food you’ve got to, because you don’t want to be taking it home at the end of the day.’
Mr Bellows pays £340 a month
‘It’s part of the market’s charm’
for his pitch at Lymington, where the market has been running for 750 years. He has run stalls at markets nearby including Ringwood, Boscombe and Bournemouth, but has never received another noise complaint.
Personal trainer Jane Poecock, 53, of Lymington, said: ‘It’s a centuriesold tradition. It brings people in and puts a smile on your face, it’s entertaining. It perfectly describes the snootiness of Lymington. Some people think they can have it however they like because they have money.
‘If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have bought a house on the high street which is well-known for being loud and energetic.’
Mr Bellows said he will raise the matter in a meeting with local councillors later this month.
Elizabeth Jarman, 54, who has worked across the road from Mr Bellows’ stall for several years, added: ‘He’s been on the market a long time and he’s never caused any trouble. We hear him every Saturday and we think it’s part of the market’s charm.’
The average home in Lymington sells for around £500,000, with some fetching up to £4million.
The New Forest town was once dubbed ‘too posh for Argos’ when residents fought plans to open a branch of the catalogue shop.
Lymington and Pennington Town Council said it had ‘a responsibility to ensure a wellmanaged market for all’ and had to deal with complaints in line with regulations.