Northampton Market: Trader 'selling house' due to market relocation

Huy Vo runs a fruit and vegetable stall with his brother

A market trader has had to put his house up for sale after his family business struggled following the renovation of a historic market.

West Northamptonshire Council is carrying out an £8.5m renovation of Northampton market and has temporarily relocated traders to Commercial Street car park.

Traders said they have lost regular customers and a cafe owner said he had lost 80% of his customers.

WNC said it was working with traders.

Huy Vo runs a fruit and vegetable stall with his brother and the company has gone from five members of staff to just one full time and one part time worker.

Mr Vo said his brother has put his house up for sale due to the tough trading conditions.

He said: "We might have to pack up the job.

"All my regulars, the people live near to town and [they] won't leave it in the bad weather. I've been here six months and never seen them come down."

He said every about 10 to 15% of his stock has to be thrown away at the end of each day.

"I'm doing the best I can to carry on but I'm hanging on. It's August now and no-one's been down here. What happens in winter? If we don't make money in summer , then the winter forget it. I give up now."

Butcher David Walters said customers can sometimes be few and far between

David Walters of M and G Butchers said there have been occasions when he has no customers for more than an hour.

Before the relocation, his stall would make between £7,000 and £8,000 a week but sometimes it only makes £3,000 now.

He said: "We don't know whether we'll be able to survive until the new market opens as they're talking about next June".

Renato Melo, the owner of Praca café on Abington Street, said he has lost 80% of customers and sales compared to this time last year.

Previously he benefitted from passing trade at the old market.

Barriers have been put up around the work site which he said is putting people off as "people don't feel welcome".

"I don't want to close the shop - next year may be busy but it's very, very hard," he added.

Dan Lister, responsible for economic development and town centre regeneration at WNC, said: "We understand there may be some disruption, but we're still seeing good footfall coming through there and it's about encouraging people to support them."

The Conservative councillor said the local authority was not currently providing any financial assistance to business owners and added that business rates were set by the government, while the council did not own affected commercial buildings so could not reduce rents.

He added that the council had been trying to attract people to the new location through a programme of events and attractions but felt the weather had hampered visitor numbers.

Mr Lister also said it was hoped free parking for shoppers to disrupted businesses and a free taxi service from the bus station to Commercial Street would attract more people to the area.