[Tealeaf]

I suspect that many of those visiting Bury are from Manchester and it's environs - Bury, is afterall, just a quick tram ride away. And lets face it - there are quite a few people from Hyndburn who take the short drive down there or just hop on the bus. I think the problem with Accy is it's relative size and it's inability to expand and reach a critical mass were it can be seen as a viable shopping destination.

It could possibly sell itself as a niche market but that usually involves the sale of higher priced goods and offhand I can't think of 'owt in which Accy could specialise in. We certainly don't want to go down the road of having a 7 day a week flea market.

What is undoubtably the case is that the Market Hall itself needed to change. I remember several years ago going in there with a colonial mate of mine and he thought he's entered a time warp; his comment was - do you need a ration book to shop in here? It really was a mixture of 1950's hardboard tat and digusting coffee shops (one employee of which may have heard my friends comment because the liquid I was subsequently served with appeared to contain rat poison).

What is also the case is that the restoration has been only a partial success while the management regime is now an absolute disaster. It really is time for a radical rethink on the market hall and the outside market and what they should be doing and how it should be done.