A Ludlow town councillor has added his angry voice to the storm of criticism surrounding plans to increase rents for the town’s market traders.
Councillor Nick Galtress said: “There is a problem with the attempt to ‘reclaim Ludlow for the Ludlovians’ by a clique of Councillors who have not dared to have their views tested at the ballot box.
“The hit list is apparently so long that by the time they’ve done there will be nothing at all left of Ludlow that any halfway normal person will be able to recognise – certainly nothing that makes it the nationally admired place that it is now.”
The plans include rent rises of just five pence per stall for some market users, while almost doubling the rent of others to £600.
Cllr Galtress was speaking after a services committee meeting on Monday where Peter Cook, chair of the Chamber of Trade, called for Cllr Tony Pound’s resignation from the services committee.
Cllr Pound had reportedly made derogatory comments about the produce market organisers to the local press.
Peter Cook said: “What worries me most is that we seem to have local government policies being formulated on a basis of discriminating against people on the basis of birthplace or residential address.
“Do all traders on the regular market live in Ludlow? Both the produce market and the food festival market are run by people from within Ludlow, and outside, but why should that matter?
“They are for the good of the town, and the organisers are contributing to the coffers of the town council.
“They would agree that rent increases are inevitable, but to set them according to some twisted theory of discrimination held by certain councillors is wrong.”
Cllr Pound refused to confirm whether he had criticised the local produce market, but denied sole responsibility for the rent increases.
He said: “The decision made on the income was done solely with not one person, but with the committee along with the market manager and the town clerk. No one person was responsible for making that decision.”
Cllr Pound added that more light would have been shed on the matter if the market manager had been able to attend Monday’s meeting.
In a further twist, Deputy Mayor Jim Smithers, along with Councillors Graeme Kidd and Linda Callender, had to use council standing orders to force the committee to refer the proposed rent increases to full council, after the Mayor Marie Glaze and Councillors Michael Bradley, Jim Newbold and Tony Pound voted not to do so. Councillor Grame Perks abstained.
The new rates will now be discussed at the next full council meeting on March 31. Markets facing abnormally high rent rises include the local produce market, the Green Fair and Ludlow Food and Drink Festival.
