Angry Newton Abbot councillors have hit out at delays in opening the town’s new £5million Market Hall.
The market closed in October 2024 for the refurbishment, with traders moving to the former Post Office building nearby while the work was done. But although the project was completed this summer, there is still no sign of it re-opening.
Teignbridge Council says it will be spring 2027 at the earliest before the market re-opens.,
In the meantime a number of traders have ‘drifted away’, with some opening their businesses elsewhere.
The council says it must carry out extensive ‘due diligence’ to find a market operator and begin welcoming traders, but some of the town’s councillors say that is not good enough.
Cllr Liam Mullone (Ind, College) said the new market was in danger of becoming a white elephant.
“People are now wondering how the Liberal Democrats, and their Conservative cheerleaders, managed to use the millions from the Future High Streets fund not to build Newton Abbot but to replace real shops with vape shops and charities and leave traders and townsfolk facing a very thin Christmas.
“We face becoming an ancient market town without a market. Traders have drifted away through poor treatment and poor planning. They are being expected to trade in a town which has lost its economic gravity.”
And Cllr Janet Bradford (Ind, College) told fellow councillors: “What should have been an exciting new chapter for Newton Abbot has become a deeply disappointing experience.”
And, she said, the market’s traders were not simply businesses occupying stalls. “They are people who have invested their hard work and livelihoods into Newton Abbot. They have built relationships with customers and helped give our town its identity.
“We cannot continue to talk about regeneration and investment as if the buildings themselves are the whole story. If the traders who make it vibrant are pushed aside, ignored or unable to make a living, we have to question what we have actually achieved.”
The council’s deputy leader David Palethorpe (Lib Dem, Ipplepen) said he recognised colleagues’ concerns over the market.
But, he added: “This is a significant investment of public money, and we need to carry out due diligence. Officers are committed, and are legally obliged, to do it.”
Members voted by the narrowest of margins – 14 to 13 with five abstentions – to back a motion from Cllr Jane Taylor (Ind, Kerswell with Coombe) to have a full debate on the market and its future at the January meeting of the full council.
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