Monday, February 1, 2010

Nicky's having a rant again!!!! (sorry)

I've noticed that our wonderful fruit & veg man, Fitzy has been at it again. This time he seems to be unhappy with the recent German Christmas Market, it seems only now he has decided he is unhappy with how it went. He says people who ran the markets we disappointed with the amount of people who attended, and seems (as is usual) to want to blame the Lib Dems for this.

Is it me or does our Fitzy have a Fraizer from Dad's Army way about him? "We're all doomed," seems to be his motto; well that and "it's all the Lib Dem run Council's fault" I swear that one day I will see his letter in the Chron claiming that the NBC are to blame for every world war, every famine & probably the end of the world too!!! I know there was a facebook group dedicated to blaming everything on Tony Woods, but surely this is taking it a little too far!

I went to the German market and thought it was brilliant; I actually went into town MORE often than I usually would have done. My folks actually came into town & visited the market, something they do not like doing because they think the town is dirty; expensive & can be an intimidating place. I thought the food was great, the gifts beautiful and the music on one day; a great touch.

I think the good intentions, and there are some; Fitzy has to bring people to this market are sadly misplaced. And this is NOT something that can be blamed on the NBC, although ALL councils for the past 20 odd years must take a part in matters... Being honest, the people we need to look at laying a lot of the blame for this at the door of; is us public.

I know that will sound harsh, but the truth is, we don't go to the market anymore. We don't use it every day for buying the meat, fish & dairy produce that my Mum's Mother did. She would do her day shift at Hawkins shoe factory & the go buy her days food etc. on the market & go home to cook it all etc. ready for when Mum come home from school & my Granddad came home from his labor work.

Simply put, this does not happen nowadays. Kids are farmed off to nannies as early as possible, so the parents can go back to their minimum waged - long hour jobs. What happens is, kids grow up not knowing their parents & the parents have no time to cook a proper decent meal... Unless of course they go to the big supermarkets & buy prepared meals. Which again leaves us with less & less people going to the market, meaning less & less stall holders can afford to keep their businesses up & running.

You cannot really blame councils for the problems governments & society in general has created can you? Maybe they have not always done much to help, but in truth this administration have done much to help create a base for future councils to be smart & build on the good work already done. A marine will be a great asset to our town, (I changed my own views on this, I was unconvinced before I saw the plans!) and the work at St. Edmunds Hospital site; is also going look great when finished.

Our market square actually looks good, but does need something else to make it look fully in use etc. The water feature will look good when finished, although I do wonder how long before it is used by yobs & misused... I am looking forward to seeing the buildings on the market being lit up at night; I'm told it looks amazing. And I must admit I loved this years Christmas lights, maybe not London like; but good nevertheless!

At the end of it all, can we please have a little less of Fitzy's gloom & doom nature, less blaming the current NBC administration for everything under the sun; and more of the fixing it stuff? Isn't that (at the end of the day) what we should all want? This town has so much going for it & can be so much more; surely this is what we ALL need to focus on?

2 comments:

DavidBrede said...

A very interesting view Nicky.

Certainly in the 15 years or so I have been in Northampton the market has declined substantially from that time and we have lost the fishmarket too, though we have gained a arts venue.

I would have thought that the emergence of alternative sources of cheap food from Aldi and similar outlets would have contributed more.

So if the market cannot do cheap anymore then it should do something else.

I like the German and French markets too but we need a long term vision for the market and indeed the town as they are both not doing well. If you want to do big shop then MK and Leicester offer better alternatives. London and Birmingham are an hour or so away by train.

I would think that the answer would be for more a unique offering. Something available nowhere else. In St Giles Street we have some of these like Peppertrees or Chanse. Not everyday shops but when you want something different or better....

So lets have more diversity in the market and move it up market a bit?

Nicky S said...

I totally agree with you David.
We need to do something with it, it is (My Mum said ~ and so did her Mum...) the oldest Market Square in the country.
We cannot loose that. And I don't think many of the current Lib Dem administration want that to happen either.
Lowering the rent on a pitch is all well and good for people like Fitzy who are there "no matter what" but in the long run if people don't go shopping on the market anymore, what is the point of it?
I wish I had the answers to it all, I wish Fitzy would quit with all this "doom & gloom" and blaming everything on the current NBC administration... it isn't ALL their fault.
And I wish I could go shopping & not wish I was somewhere (anywhere) else but here!