Traders’ anger as council sounds death knell for centuries old market

Date published: 19 September 2019

His family has been a fixture on Rochdale market for nearly 100 years but, like the rest of the town’s stallholders, Peter Jordan – known to many as ‘the egg man’ – is reeling from the council’s shock announcement that it will close from the middle of next month.

His grandfather first began selling produce from their Rossendale farm on the town’s 768-year-old market in 1919.

Next month, the family would have celebrated their 100th anniversary as Rochdale market traders – but that proud lineage now appears to be under threat.

The council says the market – which moved to The Butts last year – is not ‘financially viable’ and the council can no longer afford to subsidise it.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/130268/rochdale-market-to-close-as-trader-numbers-and-revenue-continue-to-fall

Like all the traders on the indoor and outdoor markets Mr Jordan has been given four weeks’ notice, with the last trading day set for Monday 14 October. The council says it was not contractually obliged to give any notice, but wanted to give stallholders time ‘to make alternative arrangements’.

“Obviously it was a shock, it was completely out of the blue from the council, we didn’t expect it,” says Mr Jordan who first started helping his father on the market as a teenager in the late 1950s.

Despite the grim news, the 76-year-old remains confident he will find somewhere to sell his eggs in the town centre.

“Wherever we move in Rochdale we will take 400-600 customers per month. That’s my pride and joy and I’m very, very privileged to be in this position,” he says.

“We have carried on, we have done a job with the right product at the right price, so people have stuck with us. We are still selling them to the people of Rochdale.”

 

 

Mr Jordan believes that markets remain as relevant to today’s shoppers as ever, adding: “The majority of people want a market, – it’s traditional. We have quite a lot of young families shopping with us, quite a lot of elderly people as well,” he adds.

The council has pledged to support traders to relocate elsewhere – but has it done enough?

“Not if they are going to just wash their hands of it and shut it like that without any help to long standing traders,” says Mr Jordan.

“They think they can kick us out as if it means nothing to the town, but it means a lot to the town. But it’s people in offices dictating the wishes of the people of Rochdale, so we will have to wait and see.”

Upstairs from Mr Jordan’s egg stall is Montague’s Cafe, run by Debra McGinty.

 

 

Debra set up the cafe in November last year, having been approached by the council, given her background in catering and business.

She is scathing about the council’s handling of the situation, saying it has ‘pulled the rug out from under her’.

Council officials say that traders have been aware of issues with the market and the cafe has been party to a number of meetings over the last six months to address issues relating to the costs of their business.

But the news has hit Debra hard.

“There’s been no contact from the council, no consultation, we’ve been given 28 days. Nobody has been to see me from the council; I’m in a state of shock,” says the 55-year-old.

“It’s a great place, people love to come here, and the people that come here say it’s a great place – just what Rochdale has needed.”

She adds “It’s soul destroying. If you go on social media or Google, all the ratings are four or five stars – everybody loves it here.”

 

 

The council says is it has made ‘every effort’ to make the market a success- including rent free periods and subsidised bills But Debra does not believe they have done enough.

“They have done nothing at all in in any shape or form. If I can do it in a week – get two traders interested in doing pop-ups and keen to come here – what have they done?

“They have done nothing but sit back and whinge and moan they are not getting any rents and the building is costing a fortune.

“We are working our fingers to the bone…They just haven’t got any entrepreneurial spirit in the council. They don’t have anybody who understands how to generate interest because if they did this building (the indoor market) would be full.”

Hundreds have already signed a petition to save Montague’s Cafe and Debra hopes this might still force some sort of U-turn from the council.

“You don’t just do that to every business and say ‘sorry, we are closing’, it’s just unfair,” she says.

“But as a small independent person taking on a mighty council, what chance do we have? Maybe the people power of Rochdale might rise up and say, ‘we want this building open, we want this cafe’.”

You can sign the petition here: 

• www.change.org/p/lets-encourage-rochdale-council-to-allow-montagues-to-continue-trading-in-their-existing-premises-save-montagues-cafe

Outside, on The Butts – The Riverbank Market – to give it its official name – emotions are running equally high.

 

 

Barbara Davies, who has run a children’s clothes stall for 21 years, has written an open letter to the council questioning its ‘right to destroy traders’ livelihoods’.

Like several other outdoor traders, she denies that the outdoor market is losing money and claims the indoor foodhall is the drain on the council’s resources.

“My trade is great, I’m doing as well as I did in The Exchange and in the huts (Smith Street) – that’s the annoying part – we have got the trade, we have got the customers back and now they are finishing us.

“I’m absolutely gutted, I have got a strong customer base, I have got people coming for these shoes. You can see that for yourself, and you can see the quality of the stuff – we are not selling rubbish and people know that.”

The 72-year-old trader also questions why the decision has been following the announcement Rochdale would be among the towns to benefit from the government’s £1b Future High Street Fund.

She added: “We are part of the high street, yet they are closing it down; do the government think they are giving them money to do that?”.

And she is not alone in querying how the council can cease running the market, given it holds the market charter.

“Our understanding is that people have the charter have to run the market, because the charter is for the town, not just for the council to decide,” she says.

Fellow outdoor trader Alison Melia – whose stall sells watch batteries and straps – said she was left ‘speechless’ by the decision.

“I’m just devastated, I’m numb, I can’t take it in; I can’t see how they can do this to us,” she said.

She also says the council’s offer to relocate traders to other markets in the borough or further afield did not soften the blow.

“We have served the public of Rochdale for 38 years. The public of Rochdale have been good customers to us and we still want to continue serving those customers in Rochdale – not starting up on a new market somewhere else where we are not known from Adam,” she adds.

Alison also questions how the outdoor market could be costing the council significant money, given it has no heating, lighting, or water.

 

 

She instead points the finger at the indoor market – which currently has two traders and a café – branding it a ‘white elephant’.

But she adds: “Of course I have got sympathy for them, I’ve got sympathy for all traders and to the people of Rochdale that have supported us over the years. Your heart goes out to everyone – they have got families, bills, children, mortgages…”

The market’s bedding stall is run by Sue Oliver, who believes the market being moved around from The Exchange Shopping Centre, to Smith Street and then Yorkshire Street over recent years has not helped.

“The problem is, when you have a council that’s not for the market there’s going to be problems. In other towns the council is for them and not against them. They have moved the market from pillar to post, so customers have gone elsewhere,” she says.

“We sometimes seem to be fighting against everything as well as the council, and their needs to be compromise. It’s very sad really; the conflict between the council and the market traders has been going on for years.”

 

 

Stallholders who would consider moving elsewhere say they will struggle to find a new home, as other markets will not allow competition with their own regulars.

Beverly Evans says she will feel ‘sick’ when the final trading day, October 14, comes around.

“After 30 years in Rochdale I’m going to have to start looking round for another market. We have a following, we have loyal customers and we will have to start all over again.

“I think it’s unfair they (the council) can sit up there and decide what they’re going to do without any discussion about anything.”

Other traders, including Abdul Quayyum and Masood Mohammed say Rochdale need a properly covered market – like those at Todmorden or Bolton.

 

 

They say the lack of protection from the elements and basic facilities have made it inevitable there would be days when traders do not turn up.

Council officials say that while they have taken the decision ‘with regret’, it was made after years of trying to make it work.

A spokesman said: “Ultimately we can’t use public money to subsidise the market indefinitely when it is losing money month after month. We will help any trader who wishes to relocate,”

The council says that special events – such as the artisan market which runs on one Saturday a month – have worked well and it will look to build on these in the future.

They also describe the indoor market as occupying ‘a prime location in the heart of Rochdale town centre’ and say they will be looking into alternative uses for the ‘important building’.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter