The Government announced at the end of May 2020 that all outdoor markets would be allowed to reopen, and in fact food markets had been able to trade throughout the pandemic. We decided in mid-March 2020 to suspend trading as we were unclear how we might trade safely at that time.
We restarted on Saturday 13 June 2020 with a limited number of local producers. Having ten producers allowed us to space out the stalls and leave enough space for social distancing – for stallholders, people queuing and people moving about on the Market Place. For the following markets we slowly expanded the numbers, using more space.
Although all legal restrictions have been removed in England, we wil continue to provide plenty space, will encourage people to sanitise their hands and to be patient. We review our practice regularly and make adjustments as the situation changes.
We will publish a plan of where to find the stallholders present for each market Saturday here.
Many stallholders will be happy to take your order in advance so that you can pick up from the market and some do deliveries in the area too or send our by post or courier. Please check our producer page for details.
We carried out a COVID-specific risk assessment in June 2020 which is available here. The risk assessments have been reviewed regularly.