A petition headed ‘Save Your Market’ is being launched in Knaresborough tomorrow.
Market traders in both Knaresborough and Ripon hope public support will force Harrogate Borough Council to cancel rent increases of more than 25% from Saturday which, they say, will put some of them out of business.
The petition, which will be available to sign at stalls at Knaresborough Market tomorrow and Ripon Market on Thursday, calls for ‘urgent’ public support to make the council think again about the increase. It says:
“Increasing the cost of rent and stall assembly to traders by over 25% will mean that it will not be financially viable to continue trading for several market traders.
“Other local councils helped market traders who could trade during lockdown providing essential food products. This was through charging no rent or discounting rent.
“When non-food traders were allowed to return, after not being able to trade for 3 months, full rent was charged despite other local councils providing financial assistance.
“This 25% increase is being introduced on August 1 and excludes VAT which is charged by Harrogate Borough Council but not by other councils, most traders are not VAT registered so cannot recover the VAT.
“This will lead to the loss of more traders from the ancient markets of Knaresborough and Ripon.
At a full council meeting earlier this month, Councillor Andrew Paraskos, the HBC cabinet member whose portfolio includes the markets across the Harrogate district, said:
“There is a rumour going around that Harrogate Borough Council is wanting to get rid of the markets. This is not true.”
In response to questions raised by Ripon Independent councillor Pauline McHardy, he said measures had been put in place to support and promote the markets – including the waiving of fees for those traders who were not allowed to attend for 11 weeks because of government restrictions and the holding of rental levels at the 2019-2020 rates from April until July.
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Stephen Teggin, pictured, president of Knaresborough Chamber of Trade and a long-time supporter of the town’s market – which is the longest continuously operating in England – described the council’s handling of spending across the district as ‘unfair’.
In response to news that the council plans a multi-million pounds package of spending on Harrogate Convention Centre, Mr Teggin told The Stray Ferret:
“It’s all about Harrogate. We are struggling like mad to keep Knaresborough going and attract tourists and the council finds £50m to keep something going that already loses money.”
