How do you solve a problem like Colchester’s market?

It has moved at least seven times in its colourful history, yet debate still rages over its most suitable location.

Concerns centre over its proximity to traffic against the benefits of footfall.

As the third birthday of its relocation to High Street approaches, traders and shop keepers tell the Gazette they are still not happy.

COLCHESTER has had a market for centuries and a Royal Charter states its right to be there.

But where exactly?

Colchester’s Market still does not seem to have found a home to last or which will please the majority of traders, businesses, councillors and shoppers.

Next month, it will have been in High Street on a Friday and Saturday for three years.

It is the third time it has been there over its history, which dates back to Roman times.

Now, with a different councillor in charge of its fate and one which has said it could move yet again, many have been left a feeling, quite understandably, a little dizzy.

Most recently, Labour councillor Mike Lilley, whose portfolio includes the market, suggested it is “undoubtedly” in the wrong place due to diesel fumes from vehicles.

He suggested St Nicholas Square, an area of the town undergoing regeneration, or

land around Firstsite as alternatives.

He later conceded it might have to stay where it is.

So another option is to keep it in High Street... but to pedestrianise the High Street

Another thorny issue.

Shahid Zaman ran a campaign opposing the market move to High Street in 2015.

He said: “A lot of the original traders have left. If you look at who was in Culver Street West before and who is now in the High Street.

“There was a magazine stall that left and a coffee stall. I think simply it didn’t work for them.

“The question we have got to ask ourselves is when the market was moved, the council spent £100,000 of public money.

“If it looked at moving it again, where is all the money coming from?

“The whole situation has run its course. We are now seeing the council doing a U-turn.

“We wouldn’t have moved because it wouldn’t have worked for us, we were in an established position.

“Luckily we didn’t move because we would have had to leave. You don’t need to take the market out of the High Street, you need to take the pollution out by pedestrianising it.”

Mr Zaman’s clothing stall operates in Trinity Street from Monday to Saturday and he runs Belle Love clothes and accessories shop in Eld Lane.

But in 2015, he was asked by the council to move his stall to the new High Street location, despite being a street trader, not a market trader.

The council later allowed Trinity Street traders to remain where they were following a 10,000 signature petition.

Mr Zaman, 40, said: “When these people make decisions it does have an impact on other people. What accountability is there?

“It is not a game, you can’t go around playing God with people’s livelihoods.”

“Let people earn a living and let them get on with it.”

Ron Levy, secretary of the Colchester/Retail Business Association agreed original traders had left.

He said: “I was aware there was a great deal of discontent about the move to the High Street but the council decided to go ahead with it anyway because they thought it was the best thing to do.“From all accounts, since the move the council has admitted it wasn’t such a wise move.

“Their intentions were good and it does look pretty with the stall covers but all in all it’s not been a 100 per cent success.

“I thought they were going to struggle through and make it work but a lot of traders there during the move have moved elsewhere.” “Very likely some of those who were disgruntled went elsewhere. But a new trader coming to Colchester and who doesn’t know the history of the market would just soldier on.”

The market started life in Roman times when the High Street was the central street.

About 900 years later, Saxon Colchester arose with a market opposite the present town hall.

In Norman Colchester, a Royal charter confirmed the town’s right to hold a market – the legal basis for the market now.

The cattle market, too noisy and smelly for the High Street, moved to Middleborough where it remained until 1976 but market stalls stayed in the High Street until the Sixties when a boom in the ownership of cars triggered a move to Culver Street car

park.

The introduction of the one-way system and plan to create further shopping at Culver Street saw it moved again to outside the old public library.

In 1981, it moved back to the High Street, amid doubts about the stalls and the effect on shops which, in 1989, saw it decamped again to Vineyard Street.

A move back to the High Street was short-lived in 1993 and it then disappeared before being

successfully restored in April 2015.

Mr Levy added: “The locations that it was in prior to moving to the High Street were working very well.

“It was piecemeal but fairly close together – there were stalls in Culver Street West, Culver Street East and Lion Walk.

“The biggest failure of all was Vineyard Gate car park, that was an absolute disaster for the traders.

Mr Levy added: “One of the reasons the council has said it should be moved is traffic.

“For Goodness sake, the traffic was there before it moved back to High Street.”

A Colchester Council spokesperson said: “We are concerned to hear some traders have expressed disappointment with the location and trading conditions of Colchester Market.

“These views, however, contrast with comments expressed by a number of other traders, last week, that moving the market from the High Street would be detrimental to their business.

“The continuing commercial success of the market is not only reflected in the £66,492 profit it made in 2016/17 and the profit in excess of £60k it is expected to make this year, but also in its positive community impact and affordability for new businesses.

“For example:

·         COLBEA visits the Market four times a year to introduce new local businesses to the town

·         Start-up businesses such as Mex Appeal and Peck (also recently featured in the Gazette) have established themselves as permanent traders

·         Growing businesses such as Polka Dot Cakes have used the market as a springboard to become a local business cake supplier in the space of a year.

“The market has also hosted and participated in a number of community events made possible by its upgrade and relocation to the High Street, including:

Halloween 2015

Big Slide 2016

Light & Shade 2016

Colchester Chilli Challenge 2017 & 2018

Christmas Market 2017."