Stallholder will seek legal advice after warning in market dispute
A STALLHOLDER elected to represent market traders in a Yorkshire town is to seek legal advice after being warned over his conduct towards council staff, describing the authority’s allegations as “repugnant”.
Keiron Knight has now started to wear a body cam – usually used by authority figures to record evidence – to provide footage of any future exchanges with Barnsley Council employees.
Details of the allegations, and a formal warning, are contained in a letter from Barnsley Council to Mr Knight, the vice-chairman of the Barnsley group of the National Market Traders Federation and represent a further deterioration in an increasingly bitter relationship.
Earlier this year the council broke off negotiations with him, despite his status as the Barnsley group’s official spokesman elected by stallholders to represent their position, after the group went public with concerns about the new market hall, in Barnsley’s flagship Glass Works complex. Some traders and the council are in conflict over rents, which have been cut by half for those trading on the upper floor of the market leading to a campaign to have costs matched for those on the ground floor.
The authority has now accused Mr Knight of “challenging” council enforcement officers and taking photographs of them at work in the town centre. While that allegation was being investigated, he was then accused of being “confrontational” towards market staff “challenging them about the time the arrive at work and the tasks they were carrying out”, according to the letter he received.
It added: “The team also raised complaints the you were preventing them from carrying out their work by parking and unloading
I feel like I’m being bullied by Barnsley Council.
Keiron Knight, of the Barnsley group of the National Market Traders Federation.
in the area they needed to work in.”
The letter warns his conduct was “found to fall below that expected of market stallholders” and that if the warning was not adhered to, a final written warning would be the next step.
It also offered him the opportunity to “review” the situation with a senior official.
However, Mr Knight is refuting the allegations, and said: “I feel like I’m being bullied by Barnsley Council particularly because of my role as the vice-chairman of the NMTF Barnsley group who have been supporting the Glassworks traders in getting fair rents for all.”
Barnsley Council’s service director for regeneration and culture, David Shepherd, said: “The council can’t comment on individual cases, however we do expect market traders to operate their businesses and personnel to conduct themselves in accordance with agreed protocols and in a professional manner.
“If an individual fails to comply with the expected standards then action may be necessary.”