What Northampton Market will look like after carpark move
What Northampton market will look like once it has moved to Commercial Street is due to be discussed by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) this Tuesday (January 10). There is still yet no date set for the controversial move, but if plans are approved then the council preparations will get underway. A report into the planned temporary market highlights plans including restricting operating hours to between 9.30am and 3.30pm and erecting a steel perimeter fence around half the area.
It also states that the new market will be in an area of “high probability” of flooding and that no provision for waste collection or lighting has been decided yet. Trader Joe Fitzpatrick, son of well known stallholder Eammon ‘Fitzy’ Fitzpatrick who died last year, said the new plans “did surprise me” and that moving to the car park on the edge of town “is obviously going to be a risk.” READ MORE: Meghan Markle ‘put hands on Diana’s grave’ in Northamptonshire and ‘asked for guidance’
The decision on whether to allow a Commercial Street car park (near the Carlsberg roundabout and TK Maxx) to house Northampton market for two years whilst the Market Square underwent a multi-million pound renovation was due to be made by Northampton Local Area Planning Committee last December. But the decision was deferred for “further consideration”. The Planning Committee Report into the move has since been updated following some concerns raised and will be discussed at the committee’s meeting tonight.
Should the plans be passed, WNC can begin planning the move of market traders to the site. The report shows the new market will take over the eastern section of commercial street car park, including 117 parking spaces and 4 disabled spaces. It will be bordered by the upper level car park for Argos and St Peter’s to the north and Commercial Street and Foundry Street to the East.
The South and West face St Peters Way ring road and will be surrounded by a powder coated steel fence. This will contain two gates for pedestrians and vehicles to enter the market. Some 48 stalls across ten “canopied structures” will make up the market, with eight additional pitches for food trucks.
The report states that the operating hours for these traders will be between 9.30am and 3.30pm Monday to Saturday, with traders allowed to set up from 6.30am. Joe told NorthantsLive: “I can’t really work that out, how that works.” He said his stall typically trades from 8am to 4pm, but that traders have virtually free reign over when they can trade.
Northampton market will consist of 48 stalls on the east side of Commercial Street carpark (Image: WNC/ Ordnance Survey)
“You can do what you want on the market now, we have some people coming in on the bank holidays. But that did surprise me when I saw the hours of business.
They’re quite short.” The report also shows Commercial Street has been listed by the Environment Agency as in Flood Zone 3, meaning there is a “high probability” of flooding, a 1 in 100 chance. However, WNC say in the report that there is “no known record” of it happening.
“We’ve been assured that it’s not going to flood down there,” said Joe. “I think if it does flood then most of Far Cotton will flood too.” The Environment Agency has approved the plans so long as stalls are anchored and “flood resilient.” It is also shown that no plans have currently been made for the collection of rubbish from the site or the provision of lighting there either. The report only says that these “shall be fully implemented prior to the first use of the market.”
One concern raised during the last planning meeting was the lack of public toilets at Commercial Street. Currently, the market is surrounded by public toilets at Northampton Bus Station, Grosvenor Centre and Guildhall. The report says that whilst toilets are “not a planning consideration”, WNC it is “willing to install an accessible toilet.”
WNC have highlighted a number of routes to Commercial Street from the market square and bus station (Image: WNC/ Ordinance Survey)
A further concern was the new market’s position next to the busy St Peter’s Way ring road and the bottom of a large car park, which could pose a “risk to pedestrians.” It is a concern shared by Joe, who said it “is obviously going to be a risk down there”.
He said: “It’s not pedestrianised and there are going to be people crossing car parks, given most of the trade is going to be coming through the town centre. If people are coming from across town then they’re not going to be dropped off at Bridge Street, they’ll be arriving at the Bus Station.” The report states that it is a six to seven minute walk from the market square and the bus station to commercial street.
WNC have highlighted a number of possible pedestrian routes to take, six with no steps and one with. This distance from the centre of town concerns Joe, who has a large number of elderly customers. He said the current market is part of their “daily routine.
Where they used to come into town and they could get everything in the town, that’s not the case.” The plans state clearly that the market should remain on Commercial Street for a maximum of two years, and that the site must be returned to normal on or before December 5, 2024. WNC has so far received no letters of support for the move.
The plans will be decided on by Northampton Local Area Planning Committee at their meeting at 5pm today in The Jeffrey Room of the Guildhall.
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