Even after several weeks it is still sometimes very hard to make a paying day out of it. We are getting more and more of our old customers finding us, along with some new ones, but the footfall and interest up here hasn't been as good as I expected. I told you it was known as a queer corner in my last article, and things haven't changed one bit.
To make matters worse we have discovered a few things you wouldn't expect, and which only became evident once we'd moved in. Take the pigeons, for example. We are slap opposite a food wagon on one side, so the pigeons give this side of our stall their special attention. When they aren't trying to peck at my gear that side they are up on the roof edge crapping on it: I think this alone constitutes a strong public health case for moving me elsewhere.
Then there's the sun. Difficult to believe, but just moving to the top of the market puts us high enough to catch the wintering sun beneath the awnings we put out. We can't lower the awnings any more or people will catch themselves on them, so we get the sun coming through onto the gear and drying it out, something we can do well without. When we were down at the bottom of the market we never ever suffered from this sort of thing.
What else has been happening here lately? I note that Lib-Dem plans for a food court on the Market Square have been scrapped (Chronicle & Echo, Friday 23/10/09).
So apparently have plans to bring in different caterers with foods from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, giving greater choice to the snacking public. All we have is what was there before, in the same units, but positioned slightly differently. Do the Lib Dems really think Northampton people are fooled by this?
It is just another Lib Dem failure to achieve what was promised, along with the market move that was supposed to make traders better off (for the record traders generally are far worse off now than before the move, and more than a dozen have left because of this).
Even the events that have been staged haven't brought shoppers flooding into town like these Lib Dems promised. In fact the only events that have been good for the market traders have been what we would call shopping events, like the French market and the Antiques markets.
As for the high-flown spin about 'cafe culture', is this what we are seeing under the parasols on the market every day of the week? Large groups of tables commandeered by the unemployed and the unemployable, who buy one tea or coffee an hour if the caterer is lucky, roll spliffs, and yarn and sprawl there all day long? It's enough to put off decent people from sitting down and having a snack or a cup of tea.
Why don't we see our esteemed councillors joining this cafe culture, particularly Cllrs Woods and Church, who used to give us all the 'cafe culture' spin? Come on down Richard and Tony, join this 'Norfampton' cafe culture you have brought about, show us how you enjoy it. Bring the Cabinet with you, show them the common touch. Come and roll up.
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