Burgess Hill's Saturday Market Scrapped By Martlets Shopping Centre
6th January 2018
By Peter Chapman
Traders and members of the public have been left angered after the Martlets Shopping Centre dumped their Saturday market.
Oddly, NewRiver Retail, owners of the shopping centre, decided to inform Burgess Hill Town Council of their decision, but didn't announce the news to the media nor post on their own social media pages or their website.
Local resident Rob Ashman was one of many who was not amused with the announcement. He wrote:
Maybe if the local council and NewRiver Retail had not been screwing the residents of Burgess Hill over for so many years by turning the town centre into a ghost centre of empty shops and poor upkeep, the customers would have been coming. Clearly this is a case of 'the market doesn't fit' with the council and their partner of choice's 'vision' of the future Burgess Hill. Why could the market not have relocated to outside what was Store 21? This is just a further nail in the coffin for Burgess Hill Town centre and will result in even less people visiting.
BHU spoke to a stall holder at the market's final day on Saturday 27th January. We were told that the traders were only given a weeks notice that the market was ending. NewRiver Retail claimed that a decline in footfall had made the market unviable.The stall holder we spoke to said they were still making good money and wanted to continue.
Burgess Hill Town Council have not stepped in to offer to host the market on Church Walk. They had a council meeting on Monday 29th January, but the market did not come up for discussion.
Goodbye cuddly toy stall. You were forever suppling BHU with a good choice of victims for our dogs to tear apart for just £1 each!
Spread the word, the Market has been axed leaving stall holders and the public very unhappy
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 Got an opinion on this story? Leave a comment below.....
Will you miss the market? Do you think the council should relocate it?
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