'Angry' Northampton market trader calls on council to put on bus shuttle service to help increase footfall

One ‘angry’ Northampton trader has called on the council to put on a shuttle bus service to help increase footfall at the temporary market.

Fruit and vegetable vendor Dave Dunkley has called on West Northants Council (WNC) to provide a bus service to help customers get down to Commercial Street Car Park.

Speaking to the Chron and Echo on Tuesday (March 21), Dave said: “What happened to the shuttle bus they were supposed to be putting on to get people from the town centre down to the market?”

Dave is referring to WNC’s man in charge of the project, Conservative councillor Daniel Lister, who said at a council meeting in September that he was ‘liaising with the bus companies to ensure ALL of the people that use the market currently will be able to visit with easy access’.

Now two months in at their new temporary home, Dave says footfall is struggling and the council is ‘pretending like they never mentioned’ the service.

He said: “It makes me angry. WNC is pretending like they never mentioned it.

"We would probably get our old customers back if they had a means of getting down here and back up without having to walk back up the hill with four or five bags of shopping.

“We have lost a lot of customers. If WNC put on some form of transport from the bus station to the market, there’s nothing more simpler. Let’s say it’s every two hours. So maybe four or five times a day.

“I know a lot of people who have said that if there is a shuttle bus they would come down. It could definitely be a positive change.”

Jade Greatorex, who works at Cafe Continental on the market, also welcomed a shuttle bus service.

She said: “It would definitely help because the majority of our customers from the Market Square were elderly and used the buses. If there was a bus to down here then I feel it would definitely improve footfall.

Even if they could put a closer bus stop in, maybe. It would definitely be positive.”

Nick the butcher, from M&G Butchers, said he was told by WNC that the free service would be too expensive to run.

He said: “They told me it was too expensive and they couldn’t budget for it. They said it wasn’t feasible. Anything would help.”

The Chron asked WNC: Why hasn't the bus shuttle service been introduced? Will WNC look to introduce the service soon?

Councillor Daniel Lister said: “As part of the temporary relocation of the market to Commercial Street Car Park, WNC worked with community providers and Stagecoach to assess travel options to the new location.

"It was not viable to deliver a new service, however, it has been identified that there is a bus stop on Bridge Street, which provides a flat two-minute walk from the market, with a bus every 15 minutes.”

Councillor Lister added: “We will continue to explore options to ensure that the temporary location is accessible, this includes extending the free car parking offer, and increasing disabled parking bays at Commercial Street Car Park by a third.”