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Market future threatened

Sue Carr
14/11/2002

USE it or lose it - that's the fate facing Denton market unless more shoppers visit the stalls.

Cllr Kieran Quinn, whose cabinet duties include responsibility for markets, has rubbished suggestions Denton market was in trouble, adding the town centre traders had one of the best futures in the borough.

But he urged local people to show confidence in their area and said if the market was under threat it would be through lack of use.

He said: "The solution to Denton is over the next few years and everything I am doing with my colleagues is to make sure that the market has a future.

"There are a lot of new developments coming into the town and they will bring a new vibrancy and lots of jobs."

But he said: "The main players are the market users and if you want more traders on the market then there have to be more customers.

"We have to break that cycle and this is about having confidence and support in the market."

The Liberal Democrats' Focus Team recently launched a Save Our Market campaign in which 700 surveys were handed out to local people asking their views on the future of Denton market.

Cllr Karen Wright said Tameside Council had lost interest in Denton and were ploughing all their resources into Ashton market.

But Cllr Quinn slammed the campaign, saying £100,000 had been spent on the market last year and the rents were already some of the lowest in the borough.

He said: "If the council did not support the changes in Denton then they would not be happening.

"This is a long term investment and I believe that Denton will exceed all our expectations."