LIFE IN MY NORTHERN TOWN
YOU know, I consider myself a reasonably intelligent man - I have an O level in Geology, a degree in Business Studies and I can use a spoon without taking an eye out, but even I am flummoxed with regards to what is happening to our market these days.
After much fanfare from the people who supposedly run our town along with a certain hairdresser, the market opened a few weeks ago – well, part of it was.
The food court wasn’t, and indeed, still isn’t ready yet, despite taking longer to refurbish than it took for the Pyramids to be built. And now I read that the company whom the council chose to run the market have effectively been sacked and I am not surprised.
I recall writing an article over a year ago when it was announced that a company somewhere down south had been chosen by the council to run the market, and questioning the decision then.
How could that possibly work?.
A market is a very organic thing – unlike a shop, it will grow and shrink according to demand and how many people want to put a stall on that particular day.
Now, I can understand having to have a company run a market as big as Bury where there are a couple of hundred stalls, but let’s be honest, there are about eight in Rochdale on a good day.
How difficult could that be to run?
“I would like a stall for Saturday, please”, “No problem, that will be a tenner”.
I could run that in my lunch-break, so why bring in a company – Quarterpounder, or whatever they were called – to do it?
And all from about 600 miles away. It really does beggar belief.
I have said it before and I will say it again, the market traders should be allowed to run the market themselves – it is obvious that they want to as they applied but were refused by our council who obviously know better. Or not, as it turns out. By the way, if any of you are wondering why I have not been spotted with Audrey, my dog recently, the furball decided it would be a good idea to jump out of the open car window with the result being she broke her pelvis in three places.
Luckily, she did not need surgery and is well on the way to recovery – I know this as she is starting to annoy me again.