Council hopes new market venue will attract more traders after first has only three stalls

The Friday and Saturday markets moved from the High Street to Haslett Avenue West and The Broadway last week.

A council spokesman said: “For our first weekend in the new location, we wanted to ensure that our existing market traders were resettled before taking on additional stallholders, so attendance was intentionally limited to just our existing traders who had priority spots in the first week.

“Now that the market has successfully moved to its new location and existing traders have been accommodated, we are in discussions with potential new traders such as Freckled Frog and Jah Jyot – a five star, award-winning Punjabi food outlet that is looking to set up its street food arm now that its restaurant is working well. Both traders had previously expressed an interest in joining the market and were awaiting the initial move. Now that this has successfully taken place we expect more traders to join the market soon.”

Councillors gave the green light to plans to move the weekend market and the Wednesday market in Queens Square to the new spot.

High Street traders were temporarily moved to Queens Square until last week, however, because Haslett Avenue West did not have permission for street trading until the council granted it on January 12.

Cllr Peter Smith, cabinet member for Planning and Economic Development, said the High Street market was “struggling badly” and added: “This market move will be good for the traders, good for our residents and good for the adjacent retailers, and will help to breathe more life into the area.

“We are hopeful that the move to the new location will also help the market to grow, over time, with the arrival of new stallholders.”

The Wednesday market was due to move in May as part of the square’s £3.2million revamp.

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