Street stalls 'creaming off' our trade say Bradford traders

Permanent traders in the Oastler Centre, at the top end of the city centre, have criticised Bradford Council for “diluting” their festive trade by staging a Christmas market in Darley Street and a German Christmas market in Centenary Square.

But Colin Wolstenholme, the Council’s markets manager, said: “The Christmas Market is held over four days and encourages shoppers to the top of Darley Street and hopefully to the Oastler Shopping Centre.

“The aim of the market is to encourage customers to spend in the city centre. We give our market traders the opportunity to be part of it and four traders from the Oastler Centre are trading on the Christmas Market.

“We always work with our market traders and do everything we can to promote and raise awareness of the markets.”

But David Crompton, of Pickup’s Butchers, in the Oastler Centre, said: “The Council think it’s going to draw a lot more trade into the city centre, but all it does is dilute the existing trade. We see a dip in trade every time one of these markets is on.”

Mick Egan, who runs a clothing stall in the Oastler Centre, said: “The Council think the city centre traders want these people coming here – but we don’t.

“They cream off the Christmas trade and then they are gone.”

Peter Pundit, of the Pundit’s clothing stall, said: “We’re here 52 weeks a year, paying rents and rates, providing a service to the Bradford people.

“We see trade dip because people only have so much money to spend and can only spend it once.”

Jason Benjamin, who owns the Global Fruits stall, said: “They talk about international and continental markets, but we have every religion and colour represented in here, so how much more of a diverse market can you want?”

Jeff Frankel, of Sydney’s Jewellers, said: “We have to stay here through all the bad times, then when the good times come they put 30 stalls down Darley Street to cream off the Christmas trade.”