Rochdale Market stallholders tendering to become new market operator

Stallholders tendering to become new market operator

Stallholders on Rochdale Market are tendering for the right to become the new operators of the market.

They been waiting for a permanent market location since they were temporarily relocated to the site of the old ‘Black Box’ in January 2015.

A statement from the stallholders reads: “We are the Rochdale Group of the National Market Traders Federation. We are formally tendering for the right to become the new operator of Rochdale Market.

“Our aim is to provide a quality market that our loyal and supportive customer base can be proud of.

“We have survived every type of weather that this old mill town has thrown at us over the past 22 months, and the long wait for a permanent market place providing outside cover and inside provision is within sight.

“Our forefathers came together as pioneers of the first co-operative, and it is our aim to recreate this and become a Market Traders Co-operative that will provide a market that the people of Rochdale can be proud of once again.

“Rochdale Council has an obligation to support groups that are willing to take on the full control, responsibility and management of facilities that once sat with the council. This is what we have been waiting for, a Market Traders Co-operative that would be a feather in the cap for the Council.

“It would give the Rochdale Market Group, with a combined business expertise of more than 200 years of continued trading, a great opportunity to positively impact on the regeneration of the Town Centre and its economic upturn.

“As a co-operative, we will be a non-profit organisation, so we will be able to give back to the community.”

A computer generated image of how the new market could look