Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington (Post 847282)

At the moment it is a half empty place that looks half finished.

Originally Posted by Ken Moss (Post 847182)

I personally would drop the rents and fill every stall in there rather than trying to squeeze even more out of the successful ones.

Originally Posted by Less (Post 847285)

Feeling a little bit down today Margaret?

Shouldn't it have a more positive note and read:-

HALF FULL.
:rolleyes:

Originally Posted by andrewb (Post 847286)

Cannot disagree with you there! With the current economic climate and spending reductions to come the council should be trying to reduce rent for traders.

Originally Posted by Tealeaf (Post 847252)

There are a couple of points that I have not yet seen raised on this issue of 6 day opening:

1) Historically, most towns grew around their markets which were granted by Royal Charter; these charters - often going back to the 12th or 13th centuries - specified on which days markets were to be held in the town (usually, two or three times a week). My questions therefore are a) Does Accy hold an historic Charter? b) When was it granted? and c) what conditions are there pertaining to the holding of the market? It may well be that by forcing traders to open 6 days a week, the council is in violation of it's charter and action as such may be illegal under ancient statute.

This is one for Retlaw, I think so come in Walter & lets have your thoughts.

b) While i am certainly no lover of the EU, anyone in business is fully aware of the mass of employment legislation originating in Brussels. Employment Protection covers not just employees, but the self-employed as well. This legislation covers the amount of time anyone can legally work without a break and as such it seems to me that by forcing many of these self-employed market stall holders to work 6 days through they will be in violation of EU law.

I'm not a lawyer or an HR guy but maybe someone who knows more about this can comment.

Originally Posted by Ken Moss (Post 847386)

European working time directives allow a 48 hour week (with certain exclusions up to 60 hours, I think) and 6 x 8 hour days would fall within that remit. Stallholders will learn how to hold their bladders for 8 hours and forego refreshment breaks, in fact market traders will probably thrive on it, especially in winter months when the cold weather buggers up your plumbing.

Originally Posted by Ken Moss (Post 847385)

Thank you, it really is the only way forward now.

Tesco is going to hammer the market in terms of new custom. I also foresee all sorts of traffic problems when it finally opens unless some drastic restructuring to the road system is implemented.

Originally Posted by Tealeaf (Post 847397)

It wasn't the 48 hour week I was primarily thinking of, but the 5.6 week/28 day minimum statutory holiday. How will this fit in to 6 day a week opening for 3 months or maybe permanently?

Originally Posted by lindsay ormerod (Post 847491)

Handy if you want to learn to crochet though as that was todays pointless craft lesson being taught to some very uninterested bods.
Now can one of you crochet me up some mung beans?;)

Originally Posted by Ken Moss (Post 847385)

Thank you, it really is the only way forward now.

Tesco is going to hammer the market in terms of new custom. I also foresee all sorts of traffic problems when it finally opens unless some drastic restructuring to the road system is implemented.