Council votes to reopen the riverside market
After four years behind fences, the covered market on the quay will host traders again from the spring, with a smaller hall and longer opening hours.
The vote came late on Monday, after a three-hour debate and a public gallery so full that latecomers listened from the stairwell. Twenty-nine councillors voted to reopen the market, eight against, with four abstentions.
The hall closed in the autumn of 2022, when inspectors found that two of its iron arches had rusted through. The repairs cost more than the original estimate, and for a while the council considered selling the site.
Fewer stalls, later evenings
The new plan keeps eighty stalls out of the original hundred and twelve. The space freed at the river end becomes a covered square with tables, open until ten in the evening from Thursday to Saturday.
“We are not rebuilding a museum. We want people back on the quay after work.”
Traders who held a pitch before the closure get first refusal. The remaining pitches will be allocated by lot in February, with a quarter reserved for growers from within thirty kilometres.
What happens next
Work on the roof resumes in November. If the winter is mild, the first market day is planned for the second Saturday of April.
The Morning Ledger, its town, its council and its market are made up for the Tacet demo, and so is the consent wall in front of this article.