Ridley Road Market traders ‘might not be able to carry on’ as fee hike looms

Fruits of their labour: Hackney Council plans to make markets ‘self-funding’ from April 2016. Photograph: Blue Bone

Traders at Ridley Road have warned plans by Town Hall beancounters to up the cost of holding a stall at the much-loved market will threaten their livelihoods.

The council says it is no longer able to foot the bill for clearing up the borough’s markets at the end of each day.

Under its new proposals the cost is to be passed on to market stall holders and those business owners with shop fronts.

Larry Julian, who is Chair of Ridley Road Traders’ Association and has worked at the market for 50 years, warned some traders may be forced out by the fee hike.

“I might not be able to carry on more than a year or two. And it might happen to others like me,” he said.

“I’m Hackney-born and bred. I’ve only ever worked here and for me to leave and go elsewhere – it’s just not something I could face.

“It’s a real concern because this is not the only problem that markets are facing. All six-day markets are suffering at the moment. And we’re also having to compete with pound shops.”

Government cuts

Proposals to increase fees for market stall holders and shop fronts, in some cases by £10 a day, were announced by Hackney Council in consultation documents last week.

The council plans to slash entirely its current £180,000 yearly subsidy to the borough’s markets.

It hopes that by increasing fees, markets and shop fronts will become completely self-funding from April 2016.

The changes will also cover the council’s £550,000 annual spend on the subsequent cleaning and clearing of rubbish – £500,000 of which goes on Ridley Road Market.

Councillor Feryal Demirci, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Sustainability, said: “We are currently charging some of the markets far less in fees and charges than the cost of maintaining, managing and cleaning them.”

The revised fees form a part of the council’s efforts to cope with the government’s £60 million cut to the council’s budget, she said.

“We cannot afford to continue subsidising our market traders, including shop front trading,” she explained.

Too high

Larry Julian is calling on the Town Hall to reduce the size of the fee hike. “I understand the council can’t have the market working at such a great loss. It has other priorities and is facing cutbacks.

“But it’s a 20 per cent increase in some cases and that’s too high.

“They should have taken into account the community value of Ridley Road Market. It provides a big service to this borough and is an important market for the community.”

The revised fees are set to hit traders at Ridley Road and Hoxton Street markets the hardest.

They are also to be put in place at other sites including Calvert Avenue, Clifton Street, Crown Place, Haggerston Station and Leonard Circus.

Traders’ fees at Broadway Market, which is already self-funding, will remain unchanged.

Stall holders will have to pay an increased renewal charge only, a six-monthly fee that covers the administrative costs of renewing their licence.

The council’s consultation runs until Monday 15 February 2016.

It will then finalise any revised fees and notify traders through a statutory notice in its fortnightly freesheet, Hackney Today.