25/01/2023
Kirkham Market - Full update - Trading on Poulton Street for the foreseeable every Thursday, 08:30 - 14:00
Benjamin here! Before going into all that has been happening over the last week, I want to give my thanks again to everyone whose been sharing our messages, talking about us and reading our posts (Our last post has reached just under 5000 people in under 24 hours!). Your interaction and energy around us is the reason why we’re all still trading on Kirkham. I’m sharing some images of a few of the people who came out last Thursday to support us and helping to keep the market alive.
I’m happy to say, we’ll be staying on Poulton Street (Outside of Lily B's, The Candie Bar Kirkham and Greens Delicatessen) for the foreseeable. Once again, a big thank you to Steph, Donna, Andrea and Tina for offering us this space and supporting us. If there is any change, I’ll be letting everyone know via the Kirkham community channels on Facebook first.
As many of you have seen as well, the amazing Michelle from The Swan At Kirkham has generously offered the car park as a home for us. Although we’ll be staying on the other end of Poulton Street for now, there may be a move to this location if more traders confirm they’ll be standing with us. Again, we’ll update you if this happens (Thank you again Michelle!)
You may have also seen that we’ve been covered across multiple local press outlets (Online and in print on the Blackpool Gazette and Lancashire Evening Post), and I was interviewed on BBC Radio Lancashire about what’s been happening to the market traders. The message has gone far and wide, and momentum is on our side.
We must give praise to Elaine Silverwood, for the pressure they put on the wider Fylde Council team to allow our businesses to trade on Poulton Street in the final hour. Elaine is the only member of Fylde Council to come down and speak to us in person. Although we have a new temporary home, we still need more support. Fylde Council should be doing so much more for this historic market town. Not only for the market traders, but for all the local businesses while the works take place across the whole of 2023.
Fylde Council’s own website which is promoting the future of the town (https://www.kirkhamfutures.org/), doesn’t give any information on our weekly market and its temporary location, nor is there any signage on the market square letting people know we’re still trading.
We have won the first battle, but we will be demanding more from Fylde Council.
We’ll be sharing an open letter to Fylde Council this weekend, outlining what they should be doing in the town to support local businesses during this incredibly difficult financial time and suggestions on further support they could be easily doing to help. We’ll be sharing this and creating an easy way for you to send this to them very soon.
There is so much more I could say, from telling all the incredible stories told to me last Thursday on the Market, to sharing all the incredible messages we’ve received online. It’s warmed all of our hearts reading each and every one of them.
Please keep sharing our message and our story. I’ll be doing positive posts in the future on our social media account, giving insight to each trader and their goods, and sharing stories from the market.
Thank you again, and as always, We Stand Together.
