Does the market have a future?

[Gary Marlowe]

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Personally, I think the market in Littlehampton is hopeless.  It shouldn't have been. There was an opportunity for the Town Council to have created something really good, but they ignored the advice of those who knew what they were talking about and instead proceeded with a bog-standard, motley collection of stalls.

As far as I'm concerned it has nothing to offer.  It has a lousy selection of lousy products and is in a lousy location.  From the outset, it was obvious there was nothing about it that was going to attract people to come shopping here. To me, it was ill-conceived and would never become an asset for the town.  And I'm not alone in that thinking.

This is from the minutes of the Planning and Transportation Committee Meeting held on 4 October 2010:

"Paul Wetherston also referred to the market and raised concerns over quality, the type of produce on sale and the lack of uniform shape and presentation of the stalls. He felt that the market was not adding to the town but was having a negative impact and emphasises that quality was essential to the success of the enterprise."

How ironic that what was intended to be an asset, is now being talked of as something that's having a negative impact.

[cassie]

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I'm afraid I agree with everything you've said Gary.  Also, why could'nt they have had it down the High Street the same as when the French market comes to town.  Trying to find a parking space on a Friday is bad enough, without the car park being half full of useless tatt.

                                                   

[Gary Marlowe]

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By the way, I stopped by the market last Friday lunchtime (the first time I'd visited it since it opened) and couldn't believe what I saw.

It was empty. Not just of customers, but of stalls.  If there were more than a dozen, I'd be surprised.  One of the traders I talked to agreed it was much smaller than it used to be, but thought some traders had been put off by the weather.  I suggest, they were put off by the prospect of not making any money.

The market is a nothing short of an embarrassment and the sooner someone puts it out of its misery, the better!

[Petalsnbuds]

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I like the idea of the market as it brings more trade up our end of the town but as a trader, when there was a flower stall in the market we lost a lot of trade, we souldnt even buy the stuff at the price they were selling it, granted their flowers wont last 5 mins but if its cheap people dont care, If your going to have a market you need one like they do in bognor seafront.

From what i understand the reason there were not a lot of stalls there is because it was too expensive to have a stall there.

[cassie]

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The market surely must be on it's last legs, I was in the car park last Friday and was embarrassed to see just 4 stalls, the weather was good so we cannot blame that.  I could even park my car on part of the car park which used to be for market stalls.

I do wish the loonies in the council, (or whoever it is who decides such things)  would think about moving it all to the high street.  It works for the French markets, why not our own traders?

[Xtreme Technology]

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It is going to move to the High Street Cassie, thanks God for that 
My Customers can now have their parking spaces back on Fridays