VILLIERS PLEDGES SUPPORT TO KEEP BARNET MARKET ALIVE

Writing in the Barnet Times this week, Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, deliberates over the future of Barnet Market...

There has been a market in Barnet for over 800 years. Since August 1199, when King John signed a charter which granted Barnet the right to hold a trade market, Barnet Market has been an important part of our local community. Indeed, the “Chipping” part of the name of my Chipping Barnet constituency originates from the Anglo Saxon word for market.

In modern times, Barnet Market has provided a much valued shopping facility where local people can pick up bargains. It has also helped keep Barnet High Street viable by generating trade for other local retailers. However, the future of the market is now uncertain. It is under threat of finding itself homeless.

In January 2008, Barnet Market moved temporarily from its site in St.Albans Road when its owners, Mr and Mrs Walsh, were granted planning permission for the site to be redeveloped. Anxious to keep the market alive, Barnet Council placed a condition on the grant of planning permission requiring the new development on the site to include facilities for a stall market. The Council also agreed to lease part of the Stapylton Road car park to provide the market with a temporary home until June 2009. The expectation was that, by then, the building work in St Alban’s Road would have been completed and the market stalls could move back to new facilities on its old site.

Unfortunately, the credit crunch has meant that building work has yet to start. The Council has offered to extend the lease on Stapylton Road but the market’s owners are reluctant to sign up to it. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking until the current lease expires in just a few weeks time.

I have been working with the local group ‘Friends of Barnet Market’, consisting of representatives of SPACES, Barnet Residents’ Association, Hadley Residents’ Association and The Barnet Society to throw my support behind their efforts to support the market and secure its long term future.

One solution being mooted by Friends of Barnet Market is to tarmac over the old site which is standing vacant, to enable market traders to move back and continue trading until work on the redevelopment can begin.

I believe that the long-term survival of the market is vital in order to keep Barnet High Street flourishing. Together with my constituents, I will fight hard to ensure we keep our market in Barnet. I will continue to work closely with the Friends of Barnet Market, with community groups, with stall-holders, with the council and with the market’s owners to resolve this situation.

“Friends of Barnet Market” have now launched a website www.fobm.co.uk which is dedicated to supporting and promoting the market. I would encourage as many people as possible to visit the site and, more importantly, to go and shop at Barnet Market which is open all day on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the Stapylton Road carpark.