East Twickenham Traders Fight Long Term Council Threat to charity

3.48.31pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 13th Oct 2003

Last week's story of the St Margaret's traders who organised a charity farmer's market and had their charges more than doubled by the council (to pay for road closures) has taken a new twist. They say that unless the council reverses its policy, they will have to stop the charity markets and the next - at Christmas - may be the last.

Vincent Cable, MP, who has championed the traders cause said that "unfortunately, the council has so far not been willing to be more flexible. I don't know whether they are afraid to lose face by backing down but it seems quite extraordinary that such a 'penny wise, pound foolish' philosophy is being pushed to such extremes."

"If the charity markets cease there will be no money for the charities and none for the council; so the charges will have been totally self defeating. The council leader preaches about 'civic pride', but when we get a private expression of 'civic pride', his council snuffs it out. They need to rethink their policy".

"To add insult to injury, it appears that the council made a mess of last week's signage and staff had to spend twice as much time sorting it out than they needed to".