Traders say their Cambridge market petition has been ‘ignored’

Traders claim Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors have ignored their pleas for half the permanent stalls on Cambridge market to remain to avoid “signing its death warrant”.

Under civic quarter proposals that include a redesign of the market, Cambridge City Council plans to remove the 99 permanent stalls from the market and replace them with 27 stalls under a canopy. Extra gazebos, or demountable stalls, could be erected when needed.

Traders say that businesses running on the market for five days a week needs 54 stalls, as many use two or three each to display their wares.

At a full council meeting on Monday (February 24), an 1,800-signature petition from market traders and Friends of Cambridge Market was presented, calling for 54 permanent stalls to be retained.

But traders were stunned when councillors said they were “clinging onto” the past, should learn to “trust” councillors more and that the council had already listened and changed the designs for the market.

Glenys Self, who runs a jewellery stall, presented the petition.

She told the meeting: “The people who signed the petition are all telling the council that they do not support the current civic quarter plans. They understand how great an asset the market is and how important it is to the city of Cambridge. If you reduce the number of permanent stalls on the market to just 27, it could kill the market.

“There are several reasons why gazebos will destroy the current success of market businesses. One, there is no guarantee that the council is going to employ enough people in the long term to keep putting up gazebos and taking them down. If you run out of money, you may cut these staff, and we will have no stalls to trade on.

“Two, the city council will cease to exist in 2028. We do not know whether any future unitary authority will continue to support the market project. Three, we have been told nothing about the events that will take place on the market. We don't know when they will happen and how they will affect our businesses, so we can't make any plans. Will we all be cleared out of the market on a regular basis? What time do we have to close before evening events? Can we survive this loss of income?”

She added that the market had been “under a cloud of uncertainty for the past seven years” because of the project and that new businesses had been put off joining the market because of this uncertainty. And she finished with a plea to the council: “Please give us at least 54 permanent stalls that we need to trade effectively and a contract that binds the council to erect sufficient stalls for the market, or you'll be signing its death warrant.”

However, Ms Self was “shocked and angered” by the response.

She added: “We don’t appreciate being patronised. Of course we want change for the market! It is filthy and run down and neglected. We have come here hoping to meet the council half way by asking for 54 stalls out of 99. They say they are listening to us, but they don’t seem to be hearing us.”

Lib Dem opposition leader Tim Bick (Market) told the meeting it was “human nature” to “cling to the ways it seems things have always been, especially to something like our market and our marketplace with their roots so deep in history.”

He said: “That's perfectly fine, unless clinging on to that is accompanied by decline and deterioration. I'm afraid I don't want to be forced to give an answer to what the petition asks for today.

“A process is currently in place, including stall holders, which is discussing the real issues in a practical way. A meeting did take place this last week, and market traders were bringing constructive influence over the plans, and this petition reads as though that is not going on. It cuts across it.”

Cllr Rosy Moore (Lab, Coleridge) said: “We are currently having monthly meetings with the traders, and there's been public consultations, specific trader consultations, stakeholder group consultations, and the plans for the market square have changed following this feedback. Initially the plans were to have 100 per cent demountable (stalls), and so responding to the traders’ feedback, we have now got this proposal for the permanent stalls.

“As I said, it's not confirmed. The design work is ongoing. It will depend on the design of stalls. And yes, we need a market to function for the traders, but we also need a market square that functions for all of the residents of Cambridge.”

Cllr Simon Smith (Lab, Castle) said: “I just want to establish more trust that we’re going to do this job well, and we’re not intending to kill this market. Far from it. We want to breathe fresh life in it.”

Green councillor Hugh Clough (Newnham) spoke in support of the petition. He said: “The market traders are the best judge of what their businesses need to trade successfully. If they say they need a minimum of 54 permanent stalls, then that is what they should have. The market makes an annual contribution to the city council of over £300,000 per year. If the council wants that to continue, it needs to listen to its own customers and give them what they need. I feel that the council is treating the traders, some of whom have run their businesses for years, as if they were small children who can't be trusted to know what they need.”

The council has shown traders designs of five different gazebos as options for the 61 demountable stalls that could be erected at busier times.

Ms Self said the traders believed only one of the options may be suitable as it fixes into the ground.

Cllr Moore said: “Every option shown at the meeting has already been successfully used at markets operated across the UK and Europe, and they have been tested in all types of conditions.”