London Farmers Market have put in an application to open the market at Salusbury Primary School on Friday evenings in addition to the present Sunday opening. They claim that Friday opening would raise additional funds for the school, maintain the market's popularity in the face of competition from local supermarkets and appeal to a younger customer base. The Friday market would be half the size of the Sunday market.
This is an extract from their application - full documentation and a link to making comments on the application can be found
HERE. There are no comments so far.
The Sunday farmers market in Queens Park is a popular local
institution, the level of popularity can be demonstrated by the numbers of
letters of support received for the 2015 planning application. It has been
trading for 14 years but like any food business needs to evolve and grow with
the times. Trading 4 hours per week may not be enough to secure its long term
future as in recent years 2 new supermarkets have opened and a third plans to
open later this year this is equivalent to 336 extra hours of competition since
the market was established and therefore we are looking to trade for an
additional 4.5 hours per week
The Friday event will be a smaller test event as we do not
plan to operate weekly all year at the moment and it may not be viable for
stalls in terms of sales at all, even for just a few weeks. Even if sales are
viable it is unlikely that such an event would trade every week of the year it
would be subject to weather constraints from January to April. A premises
licence application is in process for the event if it becomes weekly and TENS’s
have been received for the first 4 weeks. The Queens Park Farmers Market
planning application was submitted retrospectively 14 years ago after a 14 week
trial under permitted development and a similar approach has been adopted here
with the intention initially of only a 4 week trial. However after discussions
with planning officers we were advised to submit a planning application before
the change of use occurred.
From the feedback we have had to the premises licence
application for the event. There would appear to be some main themes identified
in the letters of concerns from residents and these largely stem from a
comparison with the Sunday Farmers Market. These themes are:
·
Parking / Traffic volumes.
·
Noise
·
Litter
·
Anti-Social Behaviour around entrances
The Sunday Farmers Market has grown into a popular local
destination for food shopping over the last 14 years. Since the market opened, Salusbury
Road and the surrounding area have changed completely both in terms of its
retail offering and late night entertainment. The farmers market is part of the
changing face of Queens Park but is not solely responsible for the above concerns
raised by local residents and therefore a general increase in commercial
activity at weekends has been responsible for making weekends more of a popular
destination. In the last few years 2 new supermarkets have opened both trading
until 11pm additional bars and restaurants have also opened in Lonsdale Road
and Salusbury Road. Numerous big chain coffee shops now dominate the high
street. The area is a vibrant place and as an established business of 14 years
we wish to expand in a very limited way.
It is understandable that residents would compare this
proposed Friday event with the Sunday market but they will be very different events
in terms of content, scale and use, which we believe will mean less of an
impact on the surrounding area and neighbours. For a start it will be much
smaller compared to the Sunday Farmers market. Only 50% of the existing Sunday
customer base in a survey said that they would use a Friday evening event and
those that would come would not attend every week. Around 15-20 stalls will be
present compared to 40 plus on Sundays. It is designed to be a place where
local neighbours and families can meet each other after school and work and
relax with something quick to eat. The event is planned to be of similar size
and scale to a school fete, but if it is to be a regular event Temporary Event
Notices alone will not be a suitable way to licence such an activity. We
propose that the event could be weekly but it may well be seasonal. The event
has two aims:
-
To help raise additional funding for the school
-
To help support small independent businesses and give
them a platform to launch and grow their businesses
-
To future proof the Sunday farmers market from growing
supermarket competition in Salusbury Road by attracting in a different younger
customer base on Friday evenings
In the farmers markets
14 year history at the site there have been no reported problems with alcohol
sales, no reported complaints about noise and as far as we are aware no
complaints of any nature to the Councils licensing or enforcements teams. The
market is loved by the community where it takes place. We therefore believe
that a smaller event for just 4 hours is even less likely a cause for concern
especially when there are other businesses surrounding the site staying open
much later than our proposed hours. A brand new COOP opened north of the market
site this year, next to residential properties staying open until 11pm. To put
this variation into the context of other businesses; we are requesting an extra
4 hours sales per week to add to the 4 hours we have already on Sundays, this
is tiny compared to the retail giants of COOP and M+S who opened in recent
years, trading 7 days a week 7am – 11pm and now with Planet Organic opening in
August a combined 336 hours of extra food and alcohol sales per week, we are
requesting a total of 8 hours per week.
To respond to the
residents main concerns in turn:
Parking / Traffic
Volumes:
-Our attached Sunday customer transport survey shows that a
majority of customers on Sundays do not drive to the market. Only 23% say that
they drive. The postcode map attached also shows that a majority of customers
are very local which again would indicate a high percentage of pedestrians and
cyclists
-On Fridays a CPZ is in place until 6.30pm which will deter
many drivers. We also expect the customer base to be more local popping in on
their walk home from work. Those going out on Friday evenings are also less
inclined to drive if they are planning to drink alcohol with a meal.
-Parking will be available on site for all traders vehicles
on Fridays due to lower visitor and stall numbers
-All traders are booked in advance none are permitted to
turn up and trade on the day
Noise
-There is a general level of background noise in the area
due to the busy street and other commercial activity. The southern part of the
licenced area where we propose to hold the event is surrounded by school
buildings on two sides, Salusbury road on one side and as we will only be using
approximately half of the main playground for the event there will be at least 30m
between the residential apartments and gym building to the North (See Friday
Event Area Below). We expect the event area to be used to be almost 50% smaller
than on Sundays.
-Given that the event is planned to be 50% smaller compared
to Sundays and will have 50% less people on site than during a school day we
cannot see noise being an issue. We would
be happy to stick to the maximum 499 visitors on site as required by a TEN to
protect the amenity of our neighbours
-In order to ensure that we respect the views and concerns
of our neighbours we have agreed with the representation from your licensing
officers in that last orders should be at 21.30 not 22.00 and the event will
close at 22.00pm to the public. The site will be cleared and we believe secured
no later than 23.00 which is sometime earlier than the other surrounding
businesses.
Litter / Waste
-Managers will be
on site to check that all waste will be disposed of correctly at the end of the
event – we are happy for them to check the perimeter of the site at the end of
the event to ensure no related waste is on the street
Anti-social behaviour
around entrances.
-This is largely designed to be a food / dining event,
alcohol will form a small part of the sales and will be from small independent
vineyards and craft breweries who have their own brands and reputations to
consider as well as their own personal licences, one of whom is the DPS.
-Only one gate will be open on Fridays to the public. The
main school gate closest to Lonsdale Road will be used for all public access
and this is not near to any residential properties
-The event will be managed to ensure we fulfil the 4
licencing objectives and there will be a challenge 25 policy in place at all
times. Alcohol sold in compostable cups will need to be consumed on the
premises before leaving, supervised gate control will prevent drinks being
taken on to the street-
-visitor numbers will be controlled in line with a temporary
event notice and kept below 499.
