As well as a shortage of customers the German traders did not receive many favours from the weather during the period they were operating. First it was chilly and wet for weeks on end, then it finished in frost and snow that isn't known for bringing shoppers out. I spoke with some of the German traders, and they told me they had lost thousands of GBP coming to Northampton, and that trade had been generally very poor. I do not think we are likely to see them again.
Northampton council thought that the German Market was going to bring in the crowds, despite the £7 a day parking, but they were sadly mistaken. Apart from Saturday trade, the Germans told me they did very little during the weekdays, except the sweet sellers, one or two of whom reported a constant trickle of trade.
The council thought the town centre traders - both us and the shops - wanted these German traders, but many of us don't, because if they don't bring crowds of shoppers in, they simply dilute whatever existing trade is about. People only have so much to spend. Unless they do actually pull crowds of new shoppers in, these Christmas markets tend to cream off the existing Christmas trade and then they are gone and heading back to Deutschland. Not that these poor beggars had much cream to take back, more like skimmed milk I think!
I would suggest there are so many of these Christmas markets about now that the novelty has worn off, so perhaps people are bored of them. It would be interesting to know how much NBC paid to get them and keep them here for four weeks. I'm told the security alone cost around £80 an hour, 24/7. That's about £54,000 for the duration. Who paid for this, the Germans or NBC? Whatever deal NBC paid, the Germans did so badly that NBC will probably have to pay them a great deal more to get them here again.
As those of you who have ventured out into Northampton Market Square in this cold snap may have noticed, there is now a huge construction site blocking most of the Abington Street entrance into the Square, which isn't going to do trade on the market any good at all for the next three months. All this is for the construction of a floor-level fountain, which the Lib-Dem jokers who run NBC decided would help form a 'gateway' to the marketplace, along with a few seats and perhaps one or two la-de-da erections of some kind.
The mentality of these people, both 'consultants' and Lib-Dem councillors alike, who decide that after 700 years the market square needs a 'gateway', is appalling. Don't they realise that people have found the market and the market square quite well for almost seven hundred years without any sort of 'gateway' at all?
They are throwing away some of the best trading space on the entrance to the square, which any sensible council would rent to market traders or caterers at a premium rate, and which would form a far better introduction and lead-in to the marketplace than a fountain and a few seats. What's the point of seats? We want the shopping public flocking into the Square, not low types sitting around drinking and doing drugs and putting off decent people from walking through.
That's what it could be like - you did see some of the 'cafe culture' before the cold snap cut them down, didn't you? Richard and Tony and Brendan did not even show their faces amongst the 'cafe culture' either; so disappointing after all their continental prattle.
As for the fountain, well if it's floor-level, or anything less than waist-level, it's pretty obvious what Friday and Saturday-night revellers are going to use it for. There won't be any public toilets open by then, remember. If it's really floor-level, they'll probably use it for something else as well, if it's turned off.
Will it freeze up in bad winters, like all the special little mounting-sockets for the gazebo stalls have done in the recent frosty weather? They couldn't put the gazebos up the other week, because water runs downhill into the sockets and freezes up, surprise, surprise, and the mechanism stops working. Why didn't anyone think of that? If you don't clear the snow it melts and runs into the sockets and then refreezes at night, pretty obvious, really.
There's a skating rink supposed to be coming soon, but it won't be half the size of the snowy slipping rink - later a slush rink - that people have had to cope with on the waste space at the bottom of the Square these last three weeks. You'd think these Lib-Dems would be so proud of the waste space they've created that at least they would keep it clear and tidy and free of ice. Not a bit of it! Unless there's some expensive event on, paid for by government grant money, they aren't really interested; and they've run out of financial steam for those sort of events for a few months yet. Never mind, the General Election will be coming along soon, and it should be an interesting year.
A Happy New Year to all my readers, and particularly to those who stop by my stalls to chat and share opinions.
You can always contact me direct:Click Here to email me
Recommended site of the month, a new one, at: http://www.saveourpublicservices.org/
Full of information about what's getting cut from our public services locally, and who's doing it. Worth a visit to get the facts.
