Another White Elephant
As I have recently remarked, there is a grave danger of this 'Indoor Food Hall' proposed by NBC for the top of the Market Square, becoming another White Elephant, just like Market Walk now is, and has been for years. Why, when the council already have one White Elephant to show off to visitors, do they want two? Shoppers never ever come into town to see white elephants. Ever.
There must be a very strong source of influence on NBC to go ahead with this vain-glorious project, as although they seem intent on going ahead, and even say the response has been: 'largely positive' and that this in turn provides a 'clear consensus' to go ahead, this is all nonsense. In reality of course, very few people indeed have been consulted, so this is all pie in the sky, or bull-manure, as the Army calls it. According to various accounts I have read, somewhere between 600 and 750 people have responded. The 600 were in the so-called 'consultation' which took place in the Grosvenor Centre for a very few days, and the other 150 were filled in online.
600 people is less than 0.3 percent of our town population (which is around 220,000), so this so-called 'positive response' is completely statistically insignificant. This means that if half of those 'consulted' so far were in favour of an indoor food hall on the Market Square, that is only 0.15 percent of the population, which is even worse. So we can clearly see here that a tiny 'consultation' with a tiny result, has been blown up to ridiculous proportions by those who are in favour of this scheme, in order to make people think it is popular. In some countries those responsible would be put on trial for such blatant lies and trickery.
There has been no 'largely positive' result, because a large number of people - almost everybody in Northampton, 99.7% - have not been asked or consulted. And there is certainly no 'clear consensus' from the people in the town, as only a very a tiny proportion have been asked. If you wish to ask the public about something important, you must ask an authentic proportion to achieve a verifiable result. This has not been done, and is a great injustice to our Town. Once again, just as with the new bus station, we find that the borough council is selling us down the river.
Not all councillors are sitting in a goggle-eyed daze, dazzled by the spectacle dangled before them by commercial con-men. Councillor Phil Larratt, amongst a few others, has spoken out courageously against it, and the effects it will have on the Market and the market traders. There can be no doubt that if this airy-fairy idea of an indoor food hall - presumably stocked by 'artisan' traders, probably charging £10 for a coffee and a bit of cake - is implemented, we shall see yet another White Elephant on the Market Square.