A plea for more hot food stalls at Spalding Market is among the measures that are being looked at to increase footfall.
South Holland District Council leader Nick Worth was among those who said that more people need to attend the Tuesday and Saturday events as the authority passed a new markets policy.
At a meeting of its Cabinet recently he urged residents to check out what stalls are already there, while also acknowledged new stalls could attract more people.
And he particularly made a plea for hot food stores to try selling there.
“We’ve been talking about young people coming into town at lunch time.
“There used to be a stall in Long Sutton that sold curries and when we had it briefly in Spalding people used to flood to it.
“Having a few market stalls for young people in particular at a lunch time is a real winner.
“If there’s anyone out there we’d love to get them in.”
Coun Bryan Alcock asked if the council could do more to attract traders.
“I think we’re doing all we can,” Coun Worth responded. “The markets manager operates in all three of the council’s partnership so there’s an opportunity to bring people that are trading in East Lindsey or Boston to come to South Holland.”
“They could do with much more footfall.
“Both Spalding Business Improvement District and ourselves are looking to put on more events to try to increase footfall in the town.”
The new policy for markets includes incentives to new and returning traders as well as more guidance around ‘severe weather’.
There will be two types of sellers, casual and regular.
“It’s noticeable that in the sunshine you get a lot of traders turning up and when miserable it has the opposite efftect,” Coun Worth said. “Some of this market policy will make that better to administer in that most, if not all of them, will become regular traders and therefore they will have to stand a certain amount of times and they can’t dip out when it’s cold, wet and miserable.”
Coun Gary Taylor added: “We do need to encourage more people to visit the market physically.
“Even a few hundred will make a difference for those traders.
“That’s the next challenge. Getting them around the stalls, buying products and it may encourage new stalls to pitch up there and start a business in our district.”
