A few councillors are still frantically playing their blue skies instruments on the poop deck, but few onlookers are paying them any attention. One of these false optimists is Cllr Jill Hopeless, who liked the way traders were shoved out of the way for art exhibits during the Blink festival (Chronicle & Echo 09/08).
I'm sure she didn't talk with any of the unfortunate traders who had to be moved to the bottom of the market for this unnecessary art display. Some of these traders are 50% down in their takings for the period when they were displaced, and so far compensation from Jill's Lib-Dem council doesn't look likely.
So do a bit of investigation before you sound off about the arts on the market in future, Jill. Behind the facade of art talk and la-di-da is the grim fact that traders families have suffered financially and lost money directly through this council's policy of displacing them for selfish events. This at a time when nobody can afford to lose any income at all.
So who was responsible for moving the traders in the first place? Well, according to council officers, the artists wanted to be in the centre of the market. But when we asked the artists, they said the council had placed them there. But as the council has responsibility for the market square, the final decision rests with them anyway, so if any of the councillors and council officers concerned had any shred of commonsense, they would have put the art exhibit at the bottom of the square in the events area, where it belonged.
As for the market looking better laid out in a square with stalls around the sides; this is nothing new. Some years ago this was the usual layout for Bank Holiday markets, when events took place in the middle. People have to come through the rows to get to the middle, and they have to go through them again on their way out, and the idea is that they may spend a quid or two while they are there.
I don't think it's a bad layout myself, but traders facing the bottom at the back of Mercers Row would have a very thin time of it, as there is little footfall down there, far less than there used to be. A previous market manager took a plan for this very layout to the council here some years ago, but they didn't want to know, as usual. They don't take notice of anybody who knows markets, they like to get an expensive smooth-talking consultant in instead.
That's a lark I'd like to get into: 'Fitzy Fitzpatrick, Town Centre Consultant'. Stroll about in a suit all day and waffle your way in and out of meetings. Give 'em a grandiose plan that's too expensive to put into operation, and scarper with your rich consultancy fee before the penny drops.
But I think I might be too honest for that sort of con, especially with ratepayers money involved. Ah well, back to unloading the fruit and vegetables!
