Walled City Traders in Derry discuss options to keep markets open

The last market took place on Saturday, April1, after Council withdrew support in ‘cost-saving measures’. The market previously cost the Council £60,000 to run.

Traders met with a representative from Council recently to fund a way to run the markets at zero cost to council.

Ashling Ramsey, owner of Willow Studios attended this meeting. She said: "When we met with council, we looked at the cost breakdowns for all the different payments and started to break it down and look at which were non-mandatory. £34,000 out of the money was going towards the Christmas Winter Wonderland, which meant we had £26,000 to figure out.”

The traders came up with solutions to most things but Council contracts meant some of the payments were non-negotiable. In the end, they decided that traders would pay £10 more in fees, making it up to £40, which would leave a deficit of around £220 per market. Traders who require electricity, such as food vans, would be required to pay the £400 charge between themselves as well as any clean-up charges. The traders also looked at reducing the amount of markets to seven per year.

Ashling continued: “If we put that deficit over seven markets, that's £1,540 for the year compared to the £60,000 Council were paying. I don't see why we should have to try and find that because our budget was absolutely cut 100 per cent when other budgets were reduced. We're fighting to get this up and going, not just for ourselves, but for the city too. People need things they can do that are free. Anybody can go up and walk around the markets and it's a free day out for everyone. It’s lovely for tourists to see it too and people come to town specifically for the markets to see what’s going on.

“We’re looking at the Coleraine market, which has 50 members and can run twice a month at no cost to the council. They use all their own workers and don’t have electricity so their model is definitely something worth looking at to see if we can replicate it."

A spokesperson for Derry City and Strabane District Council said: “Following the withdrawal of the Markets Development Programme budget as part of Council’s Savings plan for the 23/24 budgetary period, Council met with traders to explain that due to the budgetary situation Council is no longer able to deliver a monthly Walled City Market under the current model. Officers met with the traders again this week to discuss a range of options for delivery at zero cost to Council and these are to be considered and explored over the coming weeks.”

The Walled City Market traders are looking at all avenues to get the markets up and running again. They are currently looking for anyone who would be willing to sponsor the markets to cover the deficit to get in touch with Ashling by searching Ashling Ramsey Willowstudio on Facebook or contact any other traders.