Very Bad Timing for Liberal Democrats

We shall be fighting this, as the gazebos have very serious shortcomings as market stalls, and are totally unsuitable for use by some of the biggest traders on the market.
This is very bad timing for the Lib-Dems, with all this at a time leading up to the General Election. It gives us a golden opportunity to destroy the credibility of the local Lib-Dems, and scupper the chances of their golden boy, Andrew Simpson, in the North.

Now back to the gazebo popups, and their general unsuitability for the market trade. Take my trade, fruit and veg., as an example. We presently have boards specially-made to give an excellent sloping display of fruit and vegetables to the public. These boards cannot be taken down easily every night, so are left in place overnight ready for the next morning, which is fine on our traditional stalls.

But we are told we cannot leave anything in place overnight once we get the gazebos, so whatever boards we do bring will have to be taken down every night and replaced again next morning. As you cannot build out a nice display around the gazebos, our display space will be drastically reduced by almost two-thirds.

As if this wasn't enough trouble to contend with, market management also intend to take away all boards and trestles from the market, so we shall have to bring our own, an impossible task for traders who come in cars and small vans. Even big traders like fruit and veg. have massive problems with this. To carry all the boards and trestles necessary to build a good flash, you would need to buy another big van! And arrive at market two hours early to build it all up, and stay two hours late to take it all down again and pack it in your van, if you have one spare. It's just not on!

Then there is the matter of awnings. Every fruit & veg. trader has to protect his gear from the sizzling sun by putting shades or awnings out. At present these awnings clamp onto our strong steel stalls easily. The fruit trade is impossible without awnings if you are facing the sun. But these popup stalls have been so badly-designed that there is no provision for awnings at all, and nothing to clamp them to.

Yet these popup stalls - which I think were designed for little shows, not regular everyday markets - were selected for our market by people who do not know their ass from their elbow when it comes to markets, against the advice of our own market traders.

The politicians who think of these idiotic ideas either have no concept of what it takes to display goods on a market stall, or they know very well and are deliberately out to make things very difficult for us and force us off the market.

But with the General Election looming, and with yours truly standing for Northampton North, the Liberal Democrats could hardly have picked a worse time to attempt to force through such a contentious issue. If it goes through, it will spell the end of Northampton Market as we know it. But it will also spell the end of the election hopes of their golden boy in the North, and the end of the Liberal Democrats as a political party in Northampton for very many years to come. The Fight Goes On!