‘What has happened to our beloved market?’

WHAT has happened to our beloved market

That is the question on everybody’s lips.

We the market traders are asked this question several times a day on Thursday and Saturday.

We are finding it very difficult to give them a honest answer, We ask for meetings with the market management team we just get passed from one person to another but still no meeting,

Last year when the council called a meeting to inform us of the findings of a consultant that was engaged by the BID the result of their findings not one market trader agreed with their proposals and signed a petition against their proposal which the market management ignored.

To save your /our market we need with immediate effect a completely new approach from Charnwood Borough Council (CBC) and new market management team that lives in CBC area.

CBC must face the facts that their approach over the past few years has failed dismally, as a consequence the losers are the general public, the market traders and the town centre business, and of course CBC have lost revenue,

The answer from the present Southfields officers how to replace the lost revenue is to increase stall rents.

They have also increased the stall rents for any new casual trader joining Loughborough market. We need to encourage new traders not deter them.

They have also now imposed fines if you are a day late paying your market rent.

Why is it we are always the ones that pay for their failings and mistakes, We believe it’s time for radical changes.

But the changes must come from CBC at all levels of the town centre management team that are responsible for making decisions as to what happens in the market and the town centre

The present management team is ruining the market, has no respect for the traders and the town centre businesses.

Approximately 3-4 years ago when we had another consultant, they informed CBC that the market was the jewel in Loughborough’s crown.

We wonder what they would say now if they could see patched up stalls, other stalls falling apart, no maintenance of the old stalls

Please help us retain your/our traditional market .

Signed on behalf of all the market traders.