Legal warning for traders at flagship market

Stallholders ‘failing to open for six days’

TRADERS AT a new flagship market in a Yorkshire town have been issued with solicitor’s warning letters after failing to trade for the six days set down in new lease agreements or packing up early on quiet days.

At the same time, Barnsley Council has also told members of the town’s group of the National Market Traders’ Federation (NMTF) that outside consultants are being called in to help give the market hall’s image a facelift, just months after it opened.

Research by the Local Democracy Reporting Service has confirmed that Barnsley Council has written to eight traders at the town’s new flagship Glassworks complex, who have found themselves in trouble for failing to open their stalls for the full six days required under their leases for the new market hall, or for closing too early.

Barnsley Council has declined to reveal the contents of those letters, because they follow a format which the authority pays to use, but the Barnsley group of the NMTF say they were sent from the council’s own solicitor, warning those receiving them were in breach of their lease.

Group spokesman Kieron Knight said the problem resulted from poor trading levels leaving stallholders unable to pay staff, so having the option of working a six-day week or leaving their business closed when few customers THE GLASSWORKS market hall opened last autumn and is regarded as a lynchpin of the new development, with entrances thrust out to the main precinct, rather than being hidden behind shops as they had under the old arrangement.

Barnsley Council was determined the town should keep its market, likening the new hall to a department store, when other towns and cities have seen theirs struggle to survive.

Traders were also told that the council is also looking for a bar operator to take up a unit in the new ‘Market Kitchen’ food mall, which so far has three traditional cafes in place.

were expected. Barnsley Council dispute that and describe trade as “bustling”.

But Mr Knight said traders have struggled with a stipulation which insists they open for a full six days trading, because customer levels did not justify such long hours. He is now expecting some to pull out of the venture when they are able to activate a ‘break clause’ in their contracts.

Mr Knight said: “What should be the most exciting time in a generation for the markets is turning into a nightmare. When people have a break clause after two-and-a-half years, I expect some will take it because they cannot sustain six-day working. They don’t have the trade to be able to afford staff. They are not getting any quality of life.”

When markets management met with the Barnsley NMTF group, they were told the authority was calling in outside consultants to find ways to improve the market’s image, said Mr Knight.

“This is taxpayers’ money they are spending,” he said. “Traders made lots of suggestions about what they wanted to see.”

Coun Roy Miller, cabinet spokesperson for place, said: “We have a requirement to ensure that the market is operating consistently so that customers get the best possible experience of Barnsley Market. This means that all of our traders open on the same days and at the same times and adhere to the market’s opening hours – an agreement they entered into with the council when they signed their leases. This is the same for all traders in the market, and is an approach that is supported and encouraged by the National Market Trader Federation.”

Coun Miller said footfall increased by 10 per cent in December 2018 on the previous year.

The most exciting time is turning into a nightmare.

Kieron Knight, National Market Traders’ Federation group spokesman for Barnsley.