I have just, a long with OH, joined the Wadhurst Traders Association.
The guy that runs it has the herbal shop near me & he has just emailed to say they would like to start a market again in Wadhurst ( It has been 26 years since the last one) on Thursday afternoons from 2.0 until 5.30pm & has invited me to have a stall there with the first 8 weeks free then only £5.00 per table. I jumped at it and have also booked two tables for OH on the stage of the hall where he can have his fabric remnants upholstery supplies & the guy has also said he can display any small antiques & bric a brac of which we have loads. He wants it to be varied and different each week to keep the customers interested.
It wont be until middle of September but that gives me plenty of time to plan my stock & display.
Little S has an after school club on Thursdays which does not finish until 4.30 so she can walk down to the hall which is only 5 mins from her school.
Hopefully it will work out well.

That sound interesting (and convenient).

That sounds brilliant CL - how perfect!!!!

All ready for the start of my weekly market next Thursday & guess what.
THERE IS A BLO...Y petition against it. Shop holders say it will destroy business?? How narrow minded the people of Wadhurst are. There are some old school people sitting on the Parish council with nothing better to do than to try to stop anything new. They are wealthy retired and do not need to earn a living.
We will not be stopped as we are a market town & I will fight them about this. (I am so angry about it)
They have omitted to mention on the top of the petition that the market traders are all locals with new or small home run business and would not be any threat to the local shops.

Oh no, I hope that it works out ok, sadly a narrow minded few often cause chaos for others, hopefully they will not win in this situation!

Great idea about the market but sad some are against it. It is so typical. Competition is good, will force them to take a look at their service, prices, quality.
Go get 'em girl! 

That's such a shame CL hope it works out for you 

That is absolutely outrageous, and I hope you succeed in fighting it.

I think there might be some legitimate reasons to block a market application (parking, traffic flow, safety etc) but certainly not that you might compete with existing shops ...

I think that is just bizarre. I thought that was what free enterprise and the 'market' economy was all about.

That's kind of like saying they should shut down all boot sales and internet sites, as they ALL compete with brick and mortar shops.

Morons.

Here's hoping common sense wins the day. If anything a market brings more people to a town so the shops will win too.
Fingers X'd it works out

It is being held in the local commemoration hall so will not cause any problems with traffic & parking is always a problem anyway but we are all parking in the local car park so we will not be parking in front of any of the shops.
Thank you all for your support.

Erm, aren't market towns supposed to have a market?

It may help the shop holders rather than hinder them - people will often go out of their way to visit a market, and perhaps if you point out that would benefit the shops too, it would shut them up.  Twits!

How utterly narrow minded.  Surely market days are the busiest days in a town and bring in more customers than detract from the customers to any other shops? Utterly utterly stupid. 

Huh! What about Heritage, Traditions etc.??

(anything in the archives re charter, market rules etc.?)

Not sure will have to look it up but Wadhurst is one of the many market towns in East Sussex & all the other towns have kept there's such as Heathfield, Hailsham Battle but ours got stopped many years ago as did our carnival & now they would like to stop the Scarecrow weekend??
Many of the people complaining are wealthy out of townees (Noses in the air type who never do anything for the village).
I stood in the post office today in line waiting & saw people looking at the petition & when one of them went to sing it I told them out loud that it was locals who were attending the market with local made crafts & produce which the petition failed to mention. They were surprised & then refused to sign it. :mwaha:

Maybe you (or someone) should prepare a little banner than you can stick over the petition sign - stating the number of local people involved in the market?  I was in our local market on Sunday and the organising company had signs around the place saying things like "50 local people employed directly in this market" and things like that.  In these recessionary times, it's well worth pointing out that people's livelihoods could be affected if this petition wins.