Sandwell markets flourish after fees cut
Monday 26th July 2010, 11:30AM BST.
The number of traders at markets in Sandwell has rocketed after pitch fees were slashed. Take-up of stalls has risen at Oldbury, Great Bridge and Tipton since fees were halved in April.
Council bosses cut the price of pitches at the three sites to just £5 on April 1 in a bid to boost market trader numbers. Before the reduction, 106 stalls were let at Great Bridge, in the town centre car park, but the number has now increased to 302.
Levels have also gone up at Oldbury, based in the civic square in Freeth Street, from 32 to 118 and from 58 to 66 at Tipton in Owen Street.
Sandwell’s safer neighbourhoods boss, councillor Derek Rowley, said: “We are pleased to see our new pricing strategy has resulted in an increase in stall numbers let, and we anticipate the reduced fees will continue to attract new traders. However, we may see the initial large increases seen in Oldbury and Great Bridge tail off a bit as the year progresses.
“Although we continually review our income and expenditure and we are always looking for ways to boost income and attract more market traders, we intend to maintain the current fee structure for the present time.”
The £5 flat charge on a Friday and Saturday came following a two-year trial in Wednesbury. The introduction of the £5 fee at Wednesbury’s market saw the number of stalls let per year jump from 1,800 to 3,900.
Sandra Holder, a market trader of 15 years, runs a bric-and-brac stall with her 23-year-old son Matthew.
She said: “There was only a handful of traders here before the £5 charge but we have had full markets on some weeks since then.”
Dave Brown, aged 62, of Tipton, has run a fishing stall for 10 years at Great Bridge Market. Mr Brown said: “It has clearly helped reducing the rates and it has got better.”
DIY stall holder Barry Jackson, 54, of West Bromwich, added: “I think it’s a good idea, at least they’re trying something.”
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Well congratulations to Sandwell. they done what Wolverhampton and Dudley councils couldent do, increase trade on there markets stalls Dudley council please take note!
friends of Dudley town centre
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I have visions of Sandwell Labour Councillors strutting round proclaiming to each other, how clever they are that they have increased the number of market stall owners, what a load of Muppets!!!
Most of the markets in the borough had been running for years till the fools at Sandwell Council decided they wanted to intervene and put them out of business.
Great Bridge had a great little market till Sandwell’s Labour Councillors decided to take action that decimated it, there is a car park in Great Bridge that’s blocked off with massive concrete blocks where the Market used to be and where the customers used to park, a child could see that opening up the car park could attract hundreds of prospective shoppers to Great Bridge, can Sandwell’s labour Councillors????? Naaaaaaaaaa, they are insisting its got to be kept shut off.
My neighbour, my wife and I used to go to West Bromwich every Thursday morning to shop at the shopping centres and the market, Sandwell Labour Councillors decided that they wanted me to pay for my parking, Naaaaaaaaa it aint going to happen!!!!!!
I see a sign that says I have to pay to park and I drive right on past, so that bright idea of theirs helped to deter shoppers like me from shopping in West Bromwich, these control freaks couldn’t care less about the businesses that are struggling to survive in the borough, their idea is that they will just increase the rent and rates on the businesses that are left struggling to survive, well till they also close down.
I live in Bearwood; and I could go down Bearwood High Street and get anything I wanted, I didn’t have to drive out of the borough to out of town superstores, we had good quality shops already here, then our illustrious leaders decided that couldn’t continue.
They narrowed the road to eliminate the number of car parking bays available to shoppers, in less than 600 yards they installed 5 sets of traffic lights, all of these operating independently of each other, that slowed the traffic down to barely a walking pace, in fact most times the pedestrians think it is a pedestrianised area and they just walk in and out of the traffic.
As a final nail in the coffin of Bearwood’s thriving shopping centre, and as a last resort to ensure no would shop there they bought in an army of parking wardens, one parking ticket is enough of an incentive to make people shop elsewhere and that’s what they did, now its like a ghost town, overnight the shopping centre died and the council couldn’t give a damn.
These councillors destroy everything they touch, the only area that has remained untouched appears to be Smethwick High Street, its predominate population are clearly people of Asian origin but they appear to be exempt from the same destructive actions as the rest of us.
There is ample parking spaces available there and I have yet to see a parking warden on Smethwick High Street, they have even been given an off-road parking area where they can park for free, here in Bearwood we have to pay to park in ours.
Jim of Bearwood.
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