Traders reject Henley Street market move
A controversial plan to move Stratford’s Farmers Market from Rother Street to Henley Street has been rejected by traders following a meeting last week.
However the farmers market will be rebranded as the Stratford Produce Market and a new accreditation scheme launched in a bid to revitalise the twice monthly event.
The rebranded market will be promoted with the strapline ‘Sourced for Stratford’.
The plans were presented to traders at a meeting of the Stratford Market Forum last Thursday with many expressing their opposition to any relocation to Henley Street.
Following the meeting the market forum has now dropped any plans to move the market in the near future along with their proposal to hold the market just once a month.
Pat Matjaszek, Business Enterprise & Tourism Officer at Stratford District Council and one of the officers on the Stratford Market Forum, said: “We decided to consult with traders about moving the farmers market to Henley Street, but the majority of responses we received were negative about the idea. We offered traders this option because some of them are unhappy about the positioning of the farmers market in what they feel is not a prominent spot. The contractor has decided to place more of the craft type stalls near the American fountain because they want the market to remain visible for the whole day. They have moved the farmers market further along because these traders leave the site at around 2pm.
“The proposed accreditation scheme was well received. We will be putting the market contract out to tender and we will work with the current market operator Geraud and whoever wins the next contract, to promote the farmers market.”
Explaining his opposition to the plan to move the farmers market, regular trader Paul Whitehead said: “Moving the Market from its present location in Rother Street to Henley Street would be a disaster because although footfall could be higher, more of the shoppers there are tourists and less likely to purchase farmers’ market produce like eggs, meat, preserves, cheese and bread.
“The market has been located in its current position for hundreds of years and surely this should be taken into consideration.
“Access for the traders and the customers’ vehicles collecting their purchases would be a nightmare as the area proposed is mainly a pedestrian area and in my opinion it would be dangerous, especially as the numbers of tourists increase in the summer period.”
Fellow stallholder Pete Drinkwater added: “I think moving it to Henley Street just wouldn’t work. It is the busiest street in Stratford, can you imagine us bringing our big lorries down to pack up with a thousand people on the street, the health and safety implications would be horrendous. Many of our customers have said that if it happened, they wouldn’t come to the farmers market.
“I have got nothing against the accreditation scheme, but what we can’t do is limit the market to just once a month, it would kill it. People wouldn’t know when it was on and would just go to the supermarket instead.
“What we need to make the farmers market more successful is better advertising and to move the stalls next to the American fountain, not have everyone down the other end on a bit of a limb. The farmer’s market is still profitable for us, it shows what we offer as a business, but footfall has gone down. Maybe bringing in some new blood would help the market too.”
Stratford Farmers Market started 17 years ago and at one point was named as one of the top five farmers markets in the country by BBC Good Food Magazine.
However in recent years footfall has fallen dramatically with some criticism levelled at market operator Geraud for not promoting the farmer’s market enough.
Shelagh Hamer, a regular customer of the farmers market said: “They did try putting the market and the Christmas market in Henley Street a couple of years ago but they found that it lost its atmosphere. In my opinion, I don’t think the tourists on Henley Street would be bothered about buying produce from the farmers market.
“For the farmer’s market to be successful again it needs to return to its original principles of offering only local produce, and for it to be marketed better. I think that would bring back some of the producers who have left.
“I know that the tender for the next market operator is due to go out and maybe it would be better if another operator came in who would promote it better.”
