“A nail in the town centre coffin”

09/01/2012 @ 05:34

Shoppers are up in arms after Friday’s monthly Farmers’ Market upped sticks and moved to Coed y Dinas from the town centre.

The popular market is usually held in the Town Hall on the first Friday of each month selling locally grown, reared or produced food stuffs.

But this Friday the market shifted out of town to the Coed y Dinas retail park a mile up the road, sparking a number of complaints into the mywelshpool inbox from unhappy residents.

One sarcastic email read: “Another masterstroke from whoever concerned, moving the Farmer’s Market out of town from the Town Hall.”

Another said it is “the final nail in the town centre coffin after Tesco and the one-way” and went on to add that “moving such facilities out of town makes it harder for the elderly residents and those who don't have access to transport to make full use of”.

Some readers have pointed the finger at the Town Council by saying more should have been done to keep it in town, but the council responded this morning (Monday) with the following statement:

“The Farmers Market was welcome in Welshpool and the Town Council did all it could to accommodate them. However, the organisers, not the stalls, wanted them all together and decided without consultation with the Council to move. The Councillors have not aided a move nor have they encouraged it. It is the Farmers Market Orgainsiation which has made this decision. Over the past seven or eight years the Farmers Market has reduced in Welshpool in numbers but if they wanted to come back we would do all we could to aid that.”

A spokesperson from the Farmers Markets in Wales web site said he was not aware of the issue but said he would follow it up with local participants.

Do you know why it switched? Let us know at editor@mywelshpool.co.uk