Is Newark Royal Market vital for the town’s identity?

It is no news that shops have come and gone over the years, so we heard people’s thoughts on how vital the market is for the town’s identity.

Transcript

00:00I think it's very important, isn't it? Because it's just Newark, Newark market, you know,

00:12it's massive, it's a big area and it's a shame there's not so many stalls on it but it needs

00:17to keep maintained and keep going. Well it's a traditional thing, my first job was on this

00:24market on a fruit stall when I was about 14 and it's so sad to see it wasting away like it is.

00:32I think people need to realise, reduce rents, get people on stalls and get the market back thriving

00:39like it used to. It's very important because you know it's where people meet in the marketplace,

00:45it's a centre where the community gathers and I think with the shops all closing are in Newark

00:52I think the market's more important than ever. It used to be a very bustling place,

00:59it used to be a very nice friendly place and I fear it's a shadow of its former self

01:06and I think Newark's got to be a shopping centre it is to survive and I mean the market is part of that.

01:15Yeah and we've been here seven years and the changes we've seen just in that short time

01:21where the city centre has just been drained of trade. The town centre has just been drained of

01:28trade and I mean yeah I mean the market is probably even more important because you can buy stuff that

01:33you can't get in the shops that are closed down like this hat today. Well it's because I don't really

01:41know it's I think it's vital for everybody to have a market isn't it because I mean years ago when I first

01:49came here it was absolutely blooming that market but now it's just gone downhill for I don't know reason

01:58why but it has. Well I think Newark really we all identify as a historic market town and that's one

02:06of the reasons we wanted to come and live here wasn't it that it was an old historic town and I

02:10think we do see the market as a big part of that identity but we can tell ourselves in the 20 years

02:15we've lived here how it is struggling and it's struggling because of competition that perhaps

02:20wasn't there in the past for instance people using big supermarkets like Asda and Fesco for

02:27little bits and pieces and the pound shops have probably taken a lot of trade from the market but

02:32the other problem is that I think on one hand people complain bitterly about the market declining

02:38but on the other hand they're quite happy to sit at home ordering everything from very large

02:42large companies which you know connected to the rainforest that you know have a very dodgy

02:48relationship with paying a fair share of taxes so I think a lot of people that complain about the

02:52decline in the market are likely to be part of the problem yeah you'd say to use it or lose it yes

02:59Newark Mark has been traveling around for the last hundred or so years and I think it's important that

03:06we promote the market and and and use our markets because it goes back to the civil war

03:11times and all the rest of it so 500 years or so the markets have been going around so I hope people

03:17will support the markets special days are on Friday and Saturday and they have some special events on

03:24Sunday and we also do a special antique day on a Monday and other days so they do special occasions

03:31there's going to be a band concert there's two band concerts this summer and we also got the beach

03:36coming into the marketplace and we do all sorts of events to promote our town we've got the Christmas

03:42light switch on which will be in the marketplace you know so let's go and support our marketplace