Levenshulme Market has announced that it will be taking a break after July this year
In a statement out out yesterday they cited ongoing issues with our site licence agreement with Manchester City Council, the knock on effect of the pandemic and cost of living crisis, staff changes, a hacked Facebook page, a battle with left behind cars, increased fly tipping onsite and more
“It’s clear we need some time to figure out how we move forward in a sustainable way. We need to reset. Take a step back. We really want to future-proof the market we love, so you, your friends and family, can enjoy it for many more years to come. So our final market of this year will be Saturday 15th July.” they said adding
“We know lots of you will be disappointed and this news will come as a shock, but we fear if we don’t do this now we may find ourselves in a position where we can’t bounce back. We care deeply about the community we’ve created and to help you understand our decision we want to touch on some of the key challenges we’re facing.”
The market say that for two years now “we’ve been trying to renew our Site Licence Agreement with Manchester City Council off the back of a painful planning permission process.”
”The Council own the site we trade on and at the point of renewal we were made aware they wanted to re-value the site in order to ask for additional fees for our weekly market. This would be on top of the Market Rights Licence and various events permits, insurances and permissions we need to possess and pay to legally hold a market in Manchester. These proposed additional fees would end us financially.”
The market says that it has reached out to local councillors to help with these issues but to no avail
On top of licensing issues they say that Costs have risen for everyone and money is very tight for people at the moment.
“Traders are having to spend more on ingredients, fuel, materials and this means they need to make more to break even and earn a profit. On the flip side customers are spending less because their purses are being pinched too. It’s a vicious cycle. Like our traders, our running costs have also shot up considerably. We operate on a shoestring budget and re-invest any profits into the market operations, improving the site and supporting the neighbourhood and local businesses.”
