‘Cambridge market has survived Vikings and Black Death, it can survive city council plans’, argues councillor

The market in Cambridge has “survived Vikings, Black Death, wars and recessions”, so it is not about to be “destroyed” by changes planned by the city council, the Labour leadership has said.

Cllr Simon Smith (Lab, Castle), executive councillor for finance and resources, was addressing concerns that the council’s civic quarter plans represented a threat to it.

Market traders have started a petition urging the council to drop the proposals.

But Cllr Smith reminded them that the market has survived for hundreds of years and people needed to get a “sense of perspective”.

Under the civic quarter proposals, which also includes plans to improve the Guildhall and the Corn Exchange, the city council envisages the number of permanent stalls reducing to 27, which would sit beneath a lightweight canopy over half the square, while 64 demountable stalls would provide “additional trading” space at weekends and during busier months.

The market square would also be resurfaced to improve accessibility.

The whole market project is expected to cost £12.6m, but to date the council has only proposed to invest £3m on resurfacing.

Stallholders warn the market would become smaller and have raised questions over the usability of demountable stalls,

Cllr Smith said the project is still at an early stage and the designs and proposals would continue to be discussed with traders and members of the public.

Speaking at a full council meeting last Thursday (November 28), he said: “There are people worried that we are about to destroy the market. If there is one thing about the 1,200-year-old market, it is resilience.

“It survived Vikings, Norman conquest, several outbreaks of the Black Death, civil war, multiple harvest failures, innumerable economic recessions, two world wars. Can we just get a sense of perspective in this city? This council is not out to destroy the market.”

Cllr Smith said the civic quarter project also aimed to “protect and enhance” the listed Guildhall and the Corn Exchange, to improve accessibility to the wider area and create more opportunities for “cultural activities”.

The demountable stalls would enable the market square to be used for events.

Cllr Smith added that the authority hoped the changes proposed would also reduce the council’s operating costs and generate more revenue to spend on frontline services.

The cost of the initial phases of the whole civic quarter project are expected to come to about £55million, including £3.6m on design costs, £41mi for the Guildhall improvements; £3m for the market resurfacing, £4.5m for the Corn Exchange roof replacement; and £2.9m for ‘council on-costs’.

A majority of councillors at the meeting agreed to move towards the next design stage of the civic quarter project, with the aim of submitting a planning application for work on the Guildhall, the Corn Exchange and the market square in summer 2025.

Cllr Karen Young (Lib Dem, Queen Edith’s) supported the aims of the civic quarter project, noting the Guildhall upgrades would reduce costs for the council and generate income to support services.

She noted that the Corn Exchange was “seriously in need of some investment”, and money needed to be spent on the market too.

She said: “These are not nice to have, not luxury projects - they are very important for our city.”

But she recognised the work would be expensive and argued better financial oversight was needed before any major investment was fully committed.

Cllr Young called for business plans showing the ongoing financial impact on the council over time.

Cllr Naomi Bennett (Green, Abbey) raised concerns about going ahead with resurfacing market square separately from the rest of the market plans, pointing out that traders would have to move twice, disrupting their businesses and creating a “threat to their survival”.

Resurfacing alone will not make the square accessible, she added, as it was “so unpleasant getting to the square in a wheelchair or mobility scooter” due to the inaccessibility of the surrounding city centre.

Cllr Smith agreed that it was important for the council to look at improving accessibility of the public realm further out and said, having recently experienced travelling around the city centre in a wheelchair, understood how difficult it was.

Cllr Mark Ashton (Lab, Cherry Hinton) felt the vision for the civic quarter project was correct but said there was a “big difference between vision and reality”.

He warned that the council needed to be careful it was not “biting off more than it can chew” and needed to show people in Cambridge how all the work will be funded “without implications to them”.