The truth over the closure of the Town Centre Market is emerging as people in the know reveal the real facts.
It is now clear that the Town Centre owners, dissatisfied with the current management and appearance of the current market, want to introduce a more modern and higher quality set-up to attract more stallholders to Newton Aycliffe.
People are aware that the market has dwindled to a few stalls and they don’t look too appealing even though they have provided a good service to the townspeople.
Suggestions that they improve their stalls were unacceptable due to the high cost of replacement. The Town Council are only the licenceholders and have no say in the standard or administration of the weekly market as this is managed by an association of market traders.
The Landlord grasped the nettle and decided to end the current arrangement and the stallholders received the required notice to quit so that they could start again.
The question now is how long before the market returns and will they be successful with their new strategy? If the cost of rental of town centre shops is anything to go by we must fear the worst as it is likely the cost of renting a stall will be too high for market traders.
We understand one of the aims is to add Saturday as another market day, if acceptable to other local markets in the area who have to agree. We have to applaud this intitiative as it shows ambition and a real move to improve services in our Town Centre.