Market’s Table for a Tenner bid to attract start-ups

For just £10, people can sell their produce on a market stall in a “prime town centre location”, through the Table for a Tenner project.

Advice will also be available from experienced traders working on the market.

Coun Linda Burgess, Barnsley Council’s cabinet member for development, environment and culture, said yesterday: “Marks & Spencer began as a market stall in Leeds all those years ago, so if you’ve got something to sell why not follow in their successful footsteps with your own local-cost business start-up idea?”

First-time market traders will be able to apply to trade at Barnsley market on Wednesday, June 27; Saturday, June 30; Wednesday, July 4 and Saturday, July 7.

The move comes after, on a visit to South Yorkshire last year, retail guru Mary “Queen of Shops” Portas singled out Barnsley as the “most exciting market” she had seen.

She said after her visit: “Everyone thinks when I say markets I’m thinking ‘lets all sit down and have a nice organic lunch,’ but the most exciting market I saw was Barnsley where it’s £10 a table and you get it all out there.”

Table for a Tenner is also one of the ideas to be raised in Ms Portas’s Government-commissioned review of the British high street.

In the review, she writes: “Would-be retailers – or simply talented people who have something to sell – should be using indoor and outdoor markets as a step on the business ladder.”

Barnsley market has more than 300 stalls and is open every day except Thursdays and Sundays.

For further details on the Table for a Tenner scheme call 01226 772238 or email [email protected].

Last month, it was announced that 15 areas in Yorkshire have applied to be part of the so-called Portas Pilots, schemes designed to revitalise high streets around the UK.

Set up following Portas’ review, the pilots will receive a share of £1m from the Government to boost trading and support local businesses.

So far, Barnsley, Armley in Leeds, Bedale, Bentham, Bridlington, Dewsbury, Goole, Hebden Bridge, Otley, Ripon, Rotherham, Scarborough, Selby, Wakefield and York have applied.

The scheme is open to partnerships which said they wanted to “re-imagine their town centres and high streets, ensuring they offer something new and different that neither out-of-town shopping centres nor the internet can match – an experience that goes beyond retail, with creative use of public spaces and a vibrant evening economy”.

Ms Portas said: “I want the first 12 town teams to challenge the old ways of working, experiment, take risks and reaffirm their place at the heart of a community. A place we all want to be and can be proud of.”