HARLOW FARMERS MARKET CLOSES

AFTER RELOCATING TO "THE WATER GARDENS" SHOPPING CENTRE THE MARKET CLOSES AFTER 5 MONTHS BECAUSE OF COUNCIL ACTION.

Essex Farmers Markets relocated to The Water Gardens from Old Harlow some 5 months ago with a costly advertising campaign.

We felt the need to be back in the Town, after we were forced out of the Market Square by Officers at the Council not understanding our needs or how a market should be run.

While trading at Old Harlow, the longer term future did not fit the needs of our traders.

We were welcomed by the "The Water Gardens" owners and the shops that trade there.

The Council has decided to force on our traders a license fee of £285 each, even though The Water Gardens is under private ownership, but deemed to have a public right of way.

Our traders pay us a fee that covers ground rent to the landlord our advertising and hire of gazebos and a small profit for EFM.

This pending licence fee has put off a good number of traders wanting to come to Harlow from the beginning and weakened the selection and variety of produce on offer.

We have been welcomed by the public for the choice we have brought into the Town.

It is always a sad day if we have to close a market due to lack of public support, but to be forced to close because of a money grabbing excercise by a Council, when clearly there is a demand in a Town Centre by the public is beyond belief.

I would like to thank all the public that has shopped with us at Harlow and the management of The Water Gardens for their help and support.

But until the Council wakes up and sees common sense and removes this license fee we will not be able to trade anywhere in the Harlow district.

Ian Chisholm

Managing Director

Essex Farmers Markets

Welcome to Essex Farmers Markets

The huge popularity of Farmers’ Markets across the UK today has marked a return to simple, uncomplicated, face-to-face transactions between producers and their customers, in the belief that bigger is not always better.

For more than half a century, the demands of modern living have encouraged the growth of a superstore mentality with its pre-packaged foods and all-year-round chain of supply. Seasons and regions where produce was at its natural best were bypassed in order to fulfil the commercial requirement of constant availability. Transport, packaging and volume of production were all geared to the needs of the industry and people began to forget the tastes of freshly picked fruit and vegetables, locally reared meat and traditionally baked bread and cakes.

Over the last decade, however, consumers have realised that there is an alternative. The wish to return to real food, produced near home, began to make sense as freshness, flavour and food value were once again seen as important. The food-buying public rediscovered farm shops and remembered how food once was before it was processed and pre-packaged for the international marketplace. They also became concerned about how many miles their food had travelled and the implications for the environment.

Creating Farmers’ Markets has proved to be the perfect way of re-establishing a direct relationship between producer and consumer. Their existence is helping to revive old craft traditions and small-scale production where commitment and direct accountability contribute significantly to the quality of the produce.

At Essex Farmers’ Markets, we are fostering these values by bringing selected local producers to village halls, high streets and market squares around the county. You could say that we are going back to the farm gate to rediscover a taste of Essex.