Harrogate Borough Council is facing a united call to protect the ancient markets in Knaresborough and Ripon.

Following in the footsteps of Ripon Independent councillor Pauline McHardy, Knaresborough Town Council has called on HBC to rule out any additional charges to traders.

At a full meeting of HBC in July, Cllr McHardy called for fair treatment of market traders and sought an assurance that no more rent rises were in the pipeline.

A motion proposed by Liberal Democrat councillor and former town mayor of Knaresborough Andrew Willoughby was supported by the town council, which will now write to HBC’s chief executive Wallace Sampson calling for Knaresborough’s market to be protected.

Cllr Willoughby said:

“For the second time, Harrogate Borough Council are trying to push through a move to ‘self-erect’ market stalls, which will make trading impossible for some, mean more cancelled markets due to the less durable nature of these stalls and, as we have seen in Ripon, a much diminished market.”

Ripon Market.

Read more:

• Councillor calls for market traders to be treated fairly
• Ripon and Knaresborough market traders face rent increase

An increase of more than 25% for the supply and assembly of market stalls for traders in both Knaresborough and Ripon came into effect from August 1.

Speaking at the same meeting where Cllr McHardy called for no further increases, Cllr Andy Paraskos, HBC cabinet member with responsibility for the district’s markets, pointed out that a number of measures have been put in place by the council to both support market traders and promote the markets.

This included waiving fees for traders unable to attend markets because of government restrictions during the covid lockdown period and promotion of market days on social media.

He added:

“There has been a rumour going around that Harrogate Borough Council is wanting to get rid of the markets. This is not true.”