Northampton voted them in simply because they were a political flavour that had not been tried in living memory, and what a mistake that was! Once in they proved themselves headstrong, autocratic, and very arrogant. They were convinced they knew it all, and now, almost four years later, we all know they knew fluff all. Their sheer arrogance was quite astounding, and unlike anything Northampton had seen from any political party before.
We had Richard Church and Tony Woods convinced they were right about changing the shape and size of the market, despite 11,000 signatures from concerned shoppers to the contrary. Now we have a smaller market, fewer traders, less variety of goods, and more empty stalls. If the market continues to deteriorate there will be very little of it left within a couple of years, which may of course be exactly what these Liberal-Democrat politicians wanted.
A vast amount of funding from national government - the last one - has been spent by the Lib-Dems on so-called 'Events', which did nothing to increase general trade in the Town Centre, and certainly did nothing to help the market traders, many of whom complained about the huge amount of noise generated by these events. The council team who put on these events were noted for their arrogance in not consulting with the market traders as to what type of events best suited the market trade, and for taking little notice of complaints of excessive noise and the resultant lack of trade. (They seemed not to realise and not to be bothered when they were told, that excessive noise frightens older shoppers away, and older shoppers make up the greater percentage of those who shop on the market).
Another huge amount - about £100,000 - was spent on pop-up stalls made of alloy, which even now, three and a half years later, still let in more wind and rain than the traditional stalls, have no sun or rain canopies, and are not liked by many market traders because they do not suit some market trades, particularly those trades where to get stock wet means great financial loss. These are yet another magnificent Liberal-Democrat cock-up.
Then they spent a great deal more on plans to have a huge canopy and an 'eating area' at the bottom of the Square, and had all the caterers units redecorated for this wondrous improvement. This was supposed to generate a kind of Continental 'cafe culture' and improve the ambience of the Square. But it never happened; they were advised that a huge canopy would have to be taken down for 'events' and put up again afterwards, and to have professionals do this every time there was an event would cost a small fortune in running costs. So now we are left with much the same catering units as before, albeit brightly decorated, scattered across the empty half of the Square, with often a fine collection of 'Norfampton cafe culture' taking its day-long unemployable ease sprawled about, smoking, swearing, and even perhaps doing a bit of dealing, know what I mean?
Then we saw the Lib-Dems spending yet more grant money on half a fountain, and a few bird-crapped seats under the surviving trees; this highly complex project took about six months to bring on-stream. Building this disaster damaged trade on the market and in the shops around the Square for several months by blocking off the southern entrance, yet no compensation was paid to anyone.
The Lib-Dems got another separate large amount of funding to put lights up around the Market Square, presumably for the benefit of drunken Friday and Saturday night revellers, as these are the only group that frequents the Square during the hours of darkness. Apart from a few dark late afternoons in mid-winter, the market traders and their customers do not see the lights, and it is highly unlikely that they have been of benefit to Town Centre trade of any kind.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of Liberal-Democrat failings; it is only some of those which have adversely affected the Town Centre and our market on the Market Square. Obviously if you are a Liberal-Democrat politician drunken with vast amounts of public funding and under no close scrutiny as to how you spend it, you spend it on any project you are offered, the more stupid and less practical the better.
So what good have they done for the market and its traders and its customers? The only thing I can think of is that they have kept the public lavatories open in Sheep Street. It's good to know you aren't in danger of being caught short when you arrive at the market after 6.30 AM. (Before that, I'm told, the alleyways are still made use of in the traditional manner). So there we have it: after a great deal of protest about the matter in the local press and on the Internet, the Liberal-Democrats have kept the town centre toilets open. In Nazi-run Germany, for all the dreadful things that happened, the trains ran on time. In Liberal-Democrat-run Northampton, for all the spendthrift waste and disastrous squandering of public funds, they have kept the public toilets open. It is truly their finest achievement. Every time we use the bogs, we shall remember them.
