Boot fair needed more than ever

It seems Canterbury City Council is now keeping its ban on the flourishing open air market which took place every Sunday, next to Morrisons in Wincheap. In practice, what put paid to it was the dreaded lockdown. But markets have been immensely important in British history. They were here before the Romans: three of them were called Venta, the pre-roman Celtic word for market, and one of those, Venta Icenorum, was the tribal capital of Queen Boudicca herself. Such markets are not just important for what people can buy or sell: they are equally useful in binding a community together.

I moved to Thanington shortly before the first lockdown, and acquired a number of friends, mainly at the market. I looked forward to meeting them weekly. But once the lockdown arrived suddenly, all those contacts were lost. The same must have happened to others.

People at the market came from a wide area. But if you meet someone briefly, and then have no way of contacting them for over a year, you are very unlikely to meet them again. Reinstating the market could undo that damage to community life.

As it happens, this year the Sunday market has a major advantage. Work has already started on building an enormous estate of houses just south of

Cockering Road. A population of at least 10,000 is projected, and some new residents have already moved in. It will be months before any of its new leisure facilities will be up and running. But the Sunday market would be a perfect alternative venue, just ten minutes walk away, for those living in that area, while we emerge from lockdown. Secondly, moving around in the open air is a much safer thing for us to do, rather than trying to keep warm inside cafes or pubs, while leaving the windows open. In these very special circumstances, may I suggest a good old British compromise? Let us have the market back at least for this year: that’s only six months. While we can enjoy the market leading up to November, the council will have had the time to put its thinking cap on. Who knows: they might manage to produce something even better for next year. But this year, the open-air market is exactly what is needed.

Nicholas Reed Ashford Road, Canterbury