A NEW market is being considered by Middlewich Town Council.

At an events committee held on Wednesday, June 7, town councillors discussed the opening of a new market in Wheelock Street in place of the recently dissolved Makers Market.

It was agreed that a market is a positive event for Middlewich, but whilst the town council were considering setting one up, there were implications discussed.

Johnathan Williams, Middlewich Town Clerk, said: “It needs to be managed better than the last one.

“The problem lies in equipment and cost of setting up the market.

“Whilst it would be more cost-effective in the long term to buy equipment ourselves and sell stalls, we don’t have the budget to cover this or the guarantee that it will be a success.

The town council heard that a possibility of the new market would see stallholders setting up and taking down equipment themselves.

This would have to be done at the end of the day in order to make Wheelock Street, a public road, accessible again.

It was also considered that costs for stallholders would need to be reduced, in order to attract enough traders in the start up.

Town councillors also said that a new market would focus on selling general items that may cost less to buy, rather than the previous artisan market which focused on luxury items.

Cllr David Latham said: “Discussions with the business forum and with other people is that they do want the market to go ahead.

“It’s surprised me that the moment we lost the market people were stepping up in support of a new one.

“There’s a definite interest in having one, but there’s not been a clear interest in the helping of running it.”

Middlewich said farewell to the Makers Market on May 27 after five years due to being unable to attract sufficient traders.