A monthly market in Thornbury has been given the go-ahead to temporarily relocate from the High Street to a nearby car park. The Artisan Food, Craft and Gift Market will take place in St Mary Street car park while major roadworks take place in the High Street.
Four residents had objected to the plans to relocate the market, due to concerns about the loss of spaces in the car park. But the market organisers have promised to leave some spaces free, including for disabled drivers and people going to the NHS walk-in centre.
The market is run by Green Top Events, a Welsh company which has now been granted a street trading licence from South Gloucestershire Council to use St Mary Street car park. The council’s licensing sub-committee gave their approval during a hearing on Friday, March 21.
Read more: Concerns as market plans to move from High Street to nearby car park
Fiona Deas, a Thornbury town councillor, said: “We really like the Green Top event and in the High Street it’s been extremely successful. However, if they take up St Mary Street car park, the electric charging bays will be no longer accessible. Also, it’s the main car park for the St Mary Centre, and in there is the NHS walk-in centre.
“The Rock Street car park is down to half [capacity]. To also not have Rock Street car park, it will cause chaos, I think, in Thornbury. It will affect local businesses paying business rates. I don’t think [the market] will be very successful if nobody can park anywhere.”
The Rock Street car park is being redeveloped by the council alongside the major changes to the High Street. Works to the car park are due to be completed next month, while the works to the High Street are expected to last another 10 months.
Gareth O’Sullivan, managing director of Green Top Events, said: “We’ve got a lot of small businesses who are relying on this market. We’ve cut the numbers back so we don’t take up as much parking. We tend to get 30 to 40 traders but we’ve cut this down to 22 for the first one.
“The need for the market is there, and residents and customers are constantly messaging us, they want us back twice a month again. Hopefully once the High Street is done we can look at that. If we stopped the market altogether, it would be so hard to build it back up.
“We need the market to continue. It’s going to be one Saturday a month, between 7am for set up until 4.30pm once we’re gone. I can understand that you’re going to lose car parking spots, but at the same time, to lose the market altogether, I think would be a lot worse. A lot of small independent businesses are relying on this market.”
