Council dismisses frustrated veteran trader's 'ideal' relocation idea for 'struggling' temporary market in Northampton

A veteran Northampton market trader has slammed the council and revealed his ‘ideal’ location where the temporary market ‘should have been moved to’.

Mick Andreoli, who has been trading on the market for 58 years, has heavily criticised West Northants Council (WNC) in a recent interview with Chron and Echo.

The fruit and vegetable vendor has spent six ‘miserable’ months down at Commercial Street car park while Stepnell Limited undertakes £10million refurbishment works to the Market Square on behalf of WNC.

In those six months traders have reported low footfall and a lack of support from WNC, with around six stalls already quitting the site.

A very frustrated Mick said: “They are treating us like nobodies, like we have not got a brain. We accept the fact that they don’t want us back on the Market Square. They are hoping we die silently.

"Whatever we say to them they have an answer. And when it all goes pear shaped they walk away with golden handshakes but the traders lose out badly.”

Mick says he and the late Eamonn ‘Fitzy’ Fitzpatrick, who had nearly 120 years of market trading experience combined, urged the council to temporarily move them to a ‘more accessible’ location a stone’s throw away from Market Square.

Mick said: "The ideal location was to move us up the alleyway near Boots, under the road which connects to Mayorhold and Grosvenor Centre car parks as well as the town centre. Me and Fitzy wanted it there. We asked three times but the council gave us three different answers: machinery is being stored there, there are unsafe tiles which are a danger to the public, and they have not got the money. But yet the council has just found 150k to put on entertainment, which we don’t want.”

Responding to Mick, WNC said: “We don’t have full and unfettered ownership of this site. All possible alternative locations were explored, and Commercial Street provided the only viable option.”

Click here to see why market traders could not be moved to Abington Street.

Mick went on to criticise the multiple councils which have ‘prioritised spending on entertainment to increase footfall’.

Mick said: “Millions have been spent on entertainment at the Market Square in the last 25 years. We don’t want entertainment. It is taking trade away from us rather than bringing it to us.

"They say they are creating footfall but it is the wrong footfall. Before they started this entertainment facade we had a vibrant town centre which was doing very well. After spending millions, we have no town centre left.”

Mick was unimpressed when asked if WNC’s taxi service, mini-golf course and beach pit is helping footfall – both paid for from a £150k pot provided by the taxpayer.

He said: "It’s all lip service until we go out of business so they can say they have done their best for us.”

A much cheaper and simpler fix to improve the town centre, Mick said, would be to clean the it up, tackle anti-social behaviour and provide cheaper parking charges.

He said: “Clean up the anti-social behaviour in the town and around the Market Square first. Reduce car parking charges at council-owned car parks, that will keep people in the town centre.”

Conservative councillor Daniel Lister, in charge of the project for WNC, said: “We continue to work with market traders to encourage everyone to visit their stalls at the temporary market at Commercial Street.”

Click here to see how the £10million Market Square works are progressing.