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New market campaign boost

31/ 5/2002

MACCLESFIELD'S market could soon be on the move - as a traders' campaign to return to the Market Place gathers momentum.

A new petition supporting the market's return to its original location in front of the town hall has attracted more than 2,000 names in just seven days - and signatures are being added by the hour.

Trader Paula Marsh, who organised the petition, said she hoped it would help her sell the idea to the council.

She said: "The general reaction from the public is fantastic.

"Customers are adamant that they want the market to go. Everybody we have spoken to is in full support."

Paula, 35, who has run her candles and wind chimes stall for two years, will discuss the market with council officers next week.

But despite her being armed with a lengthy petition, Paula wasn't counting her chickens.

A similar campaign peaked three years ago with the help of the Express - but it found little favour with the Borough Council, and stalls have remained on Churchill Way.

Paula, who depends on her livelihood to raise three-year-old son Jack, said: "It is difficult to say what is going to happen, even with strong public support."

The town's bustling centrepiece thrived for more than 1,000 years on the Market Place.

But traders have struggled ever since they were moved to Churchill Way in the Sixties - because the site is out of the way of shoppers.

Paula added: "We really need to move the market if it is going to survive another Winter."