Councillor Ann Martin has called for Wollongong City Council to honour the contracts of stallholders at Crown Street Mall’s Friday markets for 12 months, after the council handed the market licence over to new operators.
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In an email to council staff and other councillors, Cr Martin said many existing stallholders were “bitterly disappointed” in the decision to change the operation of the long-running markets after 14 years.
From October 7, Foragers operator Kirrily Sinclair will run the Friday market as well as Thursday night’s Eat Street food fair.
She will take over from business partners Jenny Briscoe-Hough and Lara Seresin, who started the Friday stalls 14 years ago.
The council decided to open the markets to public quotations earlier this year, introducing strict new rules for operators.
Cr Martin said she had received feedback from stallholders saying they relied on their stalls for income, and were worried that there was “no guarantee that any of them will be picked up by the new market management”.
“As a result of council's decision, many local stallholders are now at risk of losing their weekly income, as Wollongong markets are their most successful market,” Cr Martin said.
She asked council officers to consider “grandparenting” the current stallholders contracts for 12 months, “to lessen the negative impact of this decision on the many good existing stall holders who are bitterly disappointed in the decision, but will not complain directly out of fear of being excluded from the market in the future”.
Meantime, Ms Briscoe-Hough and Ms Seresin held their final market last Friday, delivering a note to stalls and customers to thank them for being part of the market culture for 14 years.
“It is really hard to fathom how something which we have made with our own hands and hearts can be given away,” they wrote.
They said they were passing the market culture on to stallholders and the community “to take care and build on”, despite being “heartbroken” by the council’s decision.