Petition March

Assembly at the bottom of the Marketplace will take place from 11 am, leaving the market at 11.15 - 11.20 am. A short march to the Guildhall will take place, and if he has the courage to appear, Cllr Richard Church will receive the Petition of more than 11,000 signatures of Northampton Market shoppers who do not agree with his plans to alter and downsize the Market. Haberdashery trader Mrs Marion Hill, who has worked hard to help collect signatures, and who is being moved from a position she has occupied for many years, will present the petition.

I would like to ask everybody who is able to do so to come along with us, and bring your friends, relatives, and neighbours; the more the merrier. If you play an instrument, or have anything which makes a noise, bring it along. We do not intend to go quietly.

Despite the very strong public opposition to the changing and downsizing of the Market - Security was called four times during the NBC market presentation event a week or so ago; despite the public meetings to which leading Liberal Democrat councillors dare not come; despite the private meetings with market traders' representatives where they were told repeatedly that they were doing the wrong thing; despite all the good third-party advice they received; despite their wrongful suspension of a market trader for speaking his mind; despite their last-minute snarl-ups with the hated Points System which meant the rules had to be rewritten several times; despite their incredible mistake in ordering 150 market stall covers at £150 each which are unfit for purpose; despite ordering 150 demountable stalls at £800 each which would cost £250,000 a year to put up and take down, something they cannot pay for; despite the fact that they now find they do not have enough proper Saturday stalls for regular traders, so are asking people to take gazebos instead; despite all this and much more they are blindly plunging forward to change the layout of the market within the next couple of weeks. A more pig-headed collection of fools I have not ever come across.

I think it is obvious that this will mean the finish of the Liberal Democrat Party in both local and national elections in Northampton for many years to come. Amongst their other failures during their remaining period in office, they will be known as the political party that wrecked the local market, and to Northampton people this is not forgivable. We market traders will be watching them as they go through their inane events programme, wasting good public money in a useless attempt to bring people into the town centre; we shall chronicle their failures one after another, and let everyone know about them. By the time the next elections come they will be the laughing-stock of the town, if they are not already. It will be good to see them chucked ignominiously out of office.

Frank Jeffs did a nice prophetic cartoon of my statue that Brendan Glynane has promised to put up at the entrance to the Market Square, here's the address:

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