Council discusses weekly market days in Rasen

Coun Stephen Bunney said councillors ‘need to be aware’ of the problem.

Market days are held on a Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

The issue was raised at the town council meeting, held last Wednesday, (March 7).

Coun Bunney: “We have a problem, I think, with the market that we need to be aware of.

“I think we have to be honest with ourselves that the number of stalls on a Tuesday has fallen again.

“I think if you are looking at the costs of the market (what we are putting into it) as opposed to the income, we are struggling to make that balance.

“Ok, we carry on, but we have to be aware that we will be subsidising the market to quite a degree.”

Coun Bunney also mentioned a cost-saving measure that the council could adopt.

He said: “The other thing I do think we need to look at is that the increase in stalls was on a Tuesday, not on a Friday and Saturday.

“So if we were able to do something on a Friday and Saturday where the areas are bollarded off still - people can go in and out.

“It would save us having to pay people to go and do that, and that would be a saving which would help us with our overall strategy on a Tuesday when there might be more stalls.”

Coun Bunney told councillors that the council are paying much more than is being brought in.

He said: “We’re looking at two hours plus on a Friday, two hours plus on a Saturday for four stalls over that time which are bringing in not very much money. It’s costing us dear and we need to be aware of that.

“If we carry on as we are that’s fine but we’ve got to be aware of the cost, that say, four hours on the two days - £30/£40 something like that.

“You’re talking about income coming in - less than £20. No business would survive.”

“That was our concern in November and I think it still has to be there now - that we are paying out a lot of money for a market which comes and goes.”

At last month’s full council meeting, councillors discussed being ‘sympathetic’ towards market traders who are finding business slow.

Coun Bunney said at the time: “We will retain the charges but there will be sympathy towards those traders who are finding them difficult to pay straight away.”

The latest discussion regarding the market comes as councillors adopted a three-year strategy plan for the town.

The plan sets out five priority areas - environment and heritage, health and wellbeing, leisure and culture, development and economy, transport and access.

Speaking last month, Coun Stephen Bunney said: “The fact that now we have got here (to the strategy), the real issue is the economic development of the town which involves a lot of people, including the market. We need to be pushing that as one of our main strategies.”