Butcher quits Blackburn Market after family run stall for 150 years (From Lancashire Telegraph)

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Butcher quits Blackburn Market after family run stall for 150 years

8:30am Saturday 8th January 2011 in News Photograph of the Author By Tom Moseley, Reporter

HAD ENOUGH: Frank Littler won’t move to Blackburn’s new market in the Mall extension

THE OLDEST market stall in Blackburn is closing today – with the owners blaming a massive rent increase.

Frank Littler and Sons Butchers first opened in the town 150 years ago, but will not be going to the new market when it opens in March.

He and other three-day stallholders have been told they must trade for six days if they move.

Mr Littler currently pays £871 a month but this would increase to £1,905, and he would have to commit to three years.

Council bosses said they were ‘disappointed’ at Mr Littler’s decision.

But they insisted the £8million complex would open as planned on March 5 with most of the stalls let.

A number of long-serving traders have quit the market in recent weeks, but 90 of the 120 stalls are said to have occupants lined up.

The market traders' association is 'very worried' the new facility will open with many empty units.

Frank Littler, who has worked on the family stall for 53 years, said his rent would have increased by an 'astronomical' 118 per cent in the new market.

Instead he has decided to leave the market and move to a shop in Mellor Lane, Mellor, which opens on Wednesday.

The 68-year-old, of Livingstone Road, Blackburn, said: “The only reason is the cost of the new market.

"I would love to go in but we can’t afford it.

“But we are not closing: I’ve already bought a shop in Mellor instead.

"The business has been in Blackburn since 1860 and I feel terrible about this.

“It’s been very emotional, and we have had customers in tears. Some of them are in their 90s and have always shopped here.”

In a parting shot at the council, Mr Littler criticised the way the changeover from the current Ainsworth Street site had been managed, claiming traders had been ‘left in the dark’.

One of the other main complaints from traders has been the move from three-day to six-day trading, which some stallholders say is not viable.

Blackburn with Darwen Council is committed to a long-term lease on the new premises in the ground floor of the new Church Street shopping centre extension.

And bosses insisted the project was on track and the rent increase was the only way to fund it.

The borough council's vision is a market incorporating a quality food section where staff are 'neatly dressed and well presented'.

Traders have previously been urged to 'create a sense of theatre', for example using displays of live lobsters.

Coun Dave Harling, executive member for regeneration, said: “Frank has been a valuable trader on the market for many years and we are disappointed he has decided not to move to the new market.

“The council remains committed to the new £8million market and our traders.

"We accept it is a difficult transitional time and have reduced current rents to help traders as much as we can.

"With any regeneration project of this size, there are always going to be issues.”

Coun Harling said the £66million Mall extension was already increasing footfall in the town centre, saying the market would be the ‘final piece in the jigsaw’.

But a longstanding critic of the plans was less optimistic.

Chris Appleby, chairman of Blackburn Market Traders' Association, said he was ‘very worried’ the new market would not be fully occupied when it opened.

He added: “We are getting very close to the deadline now.

”There is a considerable amount of disquiet among traders that this market is falling apart at the seams."

Mr Appleby also urged residents to support the current market site, claiming it had been ‘neglected’ by the council.

He added: “We know it’s unattractive, but it’s not our fault.

“If the public of Blackburn want these businesses to survive and make it into the new market they need to come back and shop here.”

Comments(24)

soap opera says...
8:50am Sat 8 Jan 11

"most of the stalls let" if 90 out of 120 have been filled thats still a 1/4 empty.not full like the council are trying to make out.it will just look like the old market with gaps all over accept it will be new.they have not spent a penny on the old market for years and they are lucky it is still standing