Spalding Christmas Market has been criticised as having too few stalls, no festive atmosphere and being a waste of the £2,600 budget.
Organiser Spalding and District Area Chamber of Commerce, which was given the funding from the Springfields S106 pot by Spalding Town Centre Management Board, has been quick to defend its position.
President Phil Scarlett pointed to market stalls not turning up and several independent retailers choosing not to open. But Darren Sutton, chairman of both Spalding Town Retailers’ Association and Crescent Traders’ Association, said it was unfair to blame shops for not opening given the facts they had about the event.
Mr Scarlett said it had been difficult to attract stalls this year after the “truly awful” weather at the 2015 event, adding: “I was disappointed to learn that a number of market stalls simply didn’t turn up on the day, despite the weather being good and this left the overall appearance looking disappointing.
“I was equally disappointed to find a large number of independent retailers didn’t open, despite chamber changing the Christmas market date to suit them.
“My thanks to Rotary and the Salvation Army who helped to create a little Christmas cheer.”
Mr Sutton was unhappy that independent retailers had come in for criticism.
He said: “We were told how many stalls were going to be brought. The maximum was about 20 – that’s why a lot of shops didn’t open. And to be honest the entertainment was poor.
“He can’t blame the shops. It was disappointing for how much was spent on it.”
One of Mr Sutton’s two shops – Charmed Interiors – opened as did Hall Place shoe shop Gibbs, but store manager Mary Moore said it had been a waste of time.
“We got five stalls outside the shop and the few customers we had in were confused,” she said. “They thought Santa would be switching the lights on. Other towns have big switch-ons but here a switch was flicked the other week. It’s all down at Springfields.”
Former Spalding town centre manager Dennis Hannant, who was tasked with organising the event on behalf of the chamber, said it had been a hard sell and fees had had to be reduced in order to attract stallholders.
He said: “It’s very difficult – I don’t know why – to get people to come to Spalding. I personally found it disappointing because I wanted an all-singing, all-dancing Christmas market.”
He added that the changed date ended up clashing with similar events in Deeping, Stamford and Pinchbeck so some stallholders were committed elsewhere.
Costs in the “limited budget” included stalls (£1,000), advertising (£600), insurance (£350), a road closure of Sheep Market and entertainment.
People expressed their disappointment about last Sunday’s event on The Voice’s Facebook page:
- “Pretty dismal market and atmosphere, surely there should have been more attempt to entice traders. I expected to see crafts, foods, Christmas gifts, holly wreaths etc. I walked through it in about 4 mins flat – the Tuesday and Saturday markets have more about them than that!”
- “Very disappointing, what a waste of £2600. What was it that cost that amount of money?”
- “It didn’t feel Christmas-sy at all, we walked round it in about five minutes then walked home.”
- “It was awful. How it could have been promoted as a Christmas market is beyond me – there was only one stall selling Christmas themed goods! It took all of 5 minutes to walk around, nothing for the children apart from the go-karts, zero atmosphere – absolute rubbish. Why could it not have been combined with the Christmas lights switch on? Stamford managed to put on a great event – take a leaf out of their book next year.”
- Fish and chip bus was a fab idea. The event wasn’t advertised enough to make it a busy local event.”
