Green Party councillor John Whitelegg is calling on the Council to look at fresh ideas to improve Lancaster Market – including the introduction of a local currency scheme that could benefit all the area’s small businesses.
“We need to be considering innovative ideas,” he says, including handing over control and responsibility for running the market to the traders themselves,an idea also mooted by the Conservatives.
“We should also be promoting the market in every council publication and in all tourism literature, establishing a loyalty system to encourage regular use of the market, supporting a “friends of the market” organisation and inviting the 13,000 people who signed the petition and the 5,000 who signed up to the Facebook initiative to join.
“In the longer term we could set up a Lewes style local currency system for use in the market.”
The Lewes Pound — essentially a voucher or token that can be tradedlocally as a complementary currency and used alongsidepounds Sterling — was introduced in the East Sussex town some time ago and is described as a creative yet practical way for local people to make money work for community.
Money spent locally circulates within, and benefits the local economy. Money spent in national chains doesn’t. Supporters argue the Lewes Pound encourages demand for local goods and services, which in turn builds resilience to the rising costs of energy, transport and food.
Gina Dowding, a former Green Party cabinet member on Lancaster City Council and now the prospective parliamentary candidate for Lancaster and Fleetwood is backing John’s campaign.
“The market is the heart of Lancaster,” she enthuses. “We need to support local businesses and provide opportunities for local people to set up in business. The future of Lancaster depends on as many small businesses as possible giving it a go and employing local people in activities that put money back into the local economy.
“The market is central to our job creation and regeneration ambitions, and I urge all councillors when they meet on 31st March to support initiatives that will see the market retained whilst, at the same time, reducing the Council’s deficit”.
Where are all these ideas coming from? What about going back to the very basics?
The market needs rearranging into a logical order. Put all the food together; provide an ethic foods corner with the specialist shops. Get a fruit and veg stall back in so you can buy all your basic food goods in one go. Make it more convenient for shoppers. Put all the fashion shops together i.e. handbags, shoes…. Put all the relevant stalls near each other – why has no one suggested this?
Get things in the market which make people linger. Maybe a coffee bar down stairs and some seating areas would be a start. Put a cash machine in so people pop in to use it and once they are in, they might just purchase. Modernize the traders with credit card facilities.
Give low rent offers to new traders to attractive them. Fill the market to save money! Get some movable stalls in place so when people leave you can make it look less empty! Provide a rentable stall for health promotion events and alike. Provide monthly or weekly themes from the calendar to get people in, Easter egg hunts, and face painting – all low cost but will attract people with small children. One of the key user groups of the market. Give a wall to local schools to put artwork on which parents and other relatives come to view…and then to shop.
Obviously the market should be in tourism leaflets but you have to have something to promote? Find out the USP of the trader’s i.e. free same day delivery on bulky items such as carpets – this is a personal service – promote it. You do not get it anywhere else! Foods you cannot buy within miles of Lancaster – promote them on the leaflets!
Get some kind of student discount scheme running, put a limit on this i.e. a 1000 card per year 5% discount. Get the students to buy from 5 stalls and the first ones to have the leaflets stamped get the cards. Students love discount and that is a way of getting them in to see what the market offers. We are in a student town – target your market so to speak!
Once you have a busy vibrant market again you can sell advertising space – yet you have to invest a little first to create one.
Get some discount on the car park you gave away – let people have a cheap or free 30 min shop in the market.
The council should let the traders run the market but because the council have let the rent go too high on the building they MUST subside this for this to be a viable option for all involved. Local taxpayers will not mind some subsidy to keep hold of their heritage – this is a market town. Get local people involved in the running of the market – these people want a market town unlike the council officers who are just stuck with the job of managing it. That is why they have ended up with this giant mess. These officers have been getting paid to do…what?
Some great ideas there, Zoe.
A lot of it isn't rocket science, people enjoy shopping at well run local markets – that's why they are so popular in the towns and cities that get it right.
There is a definite desire for local foods & products (which are generally far better than supermarket fare) and a return to community-based shopping, so it would be crazy for LCC to close the market in favour of a supermarket. It's like the Council got its planning and commercial policies out of a 1970s textbook.