Ashfield offers spaces to traders from Lincoln’s scrapped Christmas market

A Nottinghamshire council is offering traders at Lincoln's now-scrapped Christmas market stalls in its area instead.

Ashfield District Council plans to offer stallholders a lifeline after controversial plans to end the Lincoln event were approved on Monday (February 20).

Labour-run City of Lincoln Council voted to drop the market after 40 years in favour of smaller events.

It came following concerns about overcrowding leading at the event "becoming unsafe".

The Lincolnshire Local Democracy Reporting Service said the 2022 event attracted 70,000 more visitors over four days than its 250,000 limit.

During the meeting on Monday evening, the Lincoln council's executive committee said the market became "uncomfortably" busy, leading to an impact on the visitor experience.

The authority also reported an expected £80,000 loss on the 2022 event and wants to spread the wider £260,000 budget across a series of smaller Christmas events instead.

More than 3,500 people signed a petition to save the market and a public meeting last week saw 100 people gather to air their concerns.

However, the controversial move was approved and led to opposing politicians labelling the Lincoln authority as "Grinches" and "Scrooges".

But now Ashfield District Council has confirmed it plans to write to all the affected Lincoln traders and offer them a place in the district.

The Ashfield Independent-led authority says it plans to upgrade its own market offering this winter and would welcome any of the affected stallholders to take up space at its events.

Speaking in the authority's cabinet meeting on Tuesday (February 21), Cllr Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind), the council's leader, said the council will pull together a list of all traders and ask if they want to come to the district.

He added: "Because it was so successful, this market bought more than 250,000 people to Lincoln over four days.

"It has been a huge success for the city and for economic regeneration. Now Lincoln Council is working on a programme of much smaller events.

"I've met with officers this morning at Ashfield District Council and have asked them to immediately begin work on options to see if there is any way we may take on a larger Christmas event in Ashfield.

"This could incorporate a large number of the now-at-a-loss stallholders from Lincoln City.

"Officers are going to look at options to see if Ashfield can accommodate what Lincoln now doesn't think is viable there.

"I think it would be a great economic regenerator, probably for Sutton if we can work it out as we have park spaces like Sutton Lawn or the town centre that could accommodate it.

"Of course, it's very short notice so we might not get the full 500 stalls, but I'm hoping whatever we plan for Sutton might work up into something bigger and better."

When confirming plans to close the market on Monday, the Lincoln councillors voted to consult widely on the new events plan before they were confirmed.

And Cllr Ric Metcalfe (Lab), the authority's leader, said: "The council has not made the proposal in front of us lightly, impulsively or without proper thought.

"We know the affection that the Christmas market is held in and how important it is."

However, he said there is a "compelling case" to be made for changes.

"If it goes on growing at this current rate … it certainly will become unsafe," he added.

"We need to think about the wider context of the market.

"Lincoln is a city that is a highly successful tourist and visitor attraction … we have a terrific base upon which to build something new by way of an alternative to our traditional Christmas market."