8:40am Wednesday 10th February 2010
By Emma Streatfield
TRADERS at Swindon’s tented market have called for help as their business prospects hang by a thread.
The venue off Commercial Road re-opened last October after a two-year absence but, four months on, only 20 of the 28 stalls have survived.
High business rates, the recession and a small number of shoppers are all being blamed for the situation, which is so bad one trader said he knew another who was taking only £4.50 a day.
Market manager Mark Parmenter said: “We spent a lot of money, re-opened it and now the people of Swindon aren’t supporting us and 20 traders are trying to survive.
“We, as a company, have done what the people wanted and now we just feel the people of Swindon aren’t coming.
“The council need to do something and start helping.”
Since December, eight traders have moved out and now other traders are receiving rate demands, which they say are set to raise in April following a revaluation.
Many of the businesses complain the rates, set by the Government, are too high. Although traders said the £2 for four hours parking deal over Christmas did see more customers and trade, once this stopped in January sales halted again.
Mr Parmenter said there was no mention of the market on the inSwindon website and there are no billboards around the town centre to direct people to the venue.
Ash Mistry, who runs Egg-E-Licious, a stall which provides various egg-inspired dishes, said: “There’s some people taking £4.50 a day. I don’t think the council has any idea how difficult it is for local traders.”
He criticised the council’s interest in projects like wi-fi.
“They want to be first in everything, but what about first in looking after new businesses?” he said.
Steve Hollister, who runs gothic clothing and jewellery outlet The Little Rock Shop, was in the tented market for 13 years before it shut down in 2007.
He said: “It doesn’t compare to what it was like before.
“There’s still people coming in and saying they didn’t realise the market is back open – there used to be a sign at Debenhams.”
Stallholder Barry Callan, who owns Soundfit, said since Christmas he was having to use his personal savings to keep the business going.
He said: “The council haven’t done anything to promote the place.
“We kind of feel the council don’t want us here, I don’t think we fit in with their new Swindon.”
“Everyone feels let down, we’re not big multi-national companies, we’re all local people trying to keep ourselves off the dole queue.”
Osman Khan, who runs Today’s News newsagents, has been at the tented market for three months.
He said: “We’re not making hardly anything, just covering the rent and just about covering the stock.
“I’m really just about holding on.”
He said the recent loss of traders had not helped because it made the market appear even emptier.
A council spokesman said: “Business rates are not set by the council and there’s nothing we can do to change them – the valuations and bandings are all set by the government.
“We can’t simply signpost the tented market because there are dozens of businesses in the town centre, all of which could make a potential case for having their own signposts.
“We have to draw a line somewhere, so we signpost the top five businesses in terms of floorspace.”
Simon Jackson, the chief executive of inSwindon, the Business Improvement District company that manages the town centre, said: “Despite the fact that the stall holders don’t pay a BID levy to inSwindon, we do support them in several ways.
“We promoted them on our website when the tented market re-opened in autumn 2009 and we also dedicated a third of a page to the market in our full-colour glossy newsletter in October.”
He added that the inSwindon street team was out last week helping the traders out with some issues and cleaning off chewing gum outside the market.
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