To guarantee its future the Brixton Market Traders Association has been approached to manage the market in the future.
Those discussions are ongoing, but guarantees will be made to current traders that despite any changes to the Brixton Farmers’ Market management structure, their ability to operate on an ongoing basis will not change.
The recent action taken by council officers has focused solely on the need to ensure that the market remains community led, and we want to ensure that the traders themselves have say in the ongoing development of the market.
Since the original operators of the Sunday Farmers Market on Brixton Station Road pulled out 18-months ago we have been working hard to support the stall holders who were determined to continue trading.
The council entered into a licence agreement with the traders at that time. The agreement encouraged the traders to get together to form a Community Interest Company (CIC) and work in partnership with the council and other community organisations to sustain and further develop the Sunday market.
Unfortunately the trader-led CIC management model failed to materialise, despite council support.
It also appears that the market was being managed as a commercial enterprise, in breach of the licence agreement. As a result the council has decided to not renew the current trading licence, and instead revise or amend the market management structure.
The focus is on ensuring the market management model is community led, and the council is not seeking to close the market. We hope to have a new management structure in place by the end of April.
