Last trader quits beleaguered market

He has been the sole trader to set out his stall at a beleaguered town market for weeks.

But now Mohammed Sajid has decided to call it a day, with his last appearance at the lonely Brownhills pitch to be on Saturday before he moves to a car boot sale.

It will mean the market in Silver Street will be left empty unless the council can secure new traders.

Mr Sajid, aged 35, has been a trader at Brownhills for 13 years travelling from his home in Sparkhill, Birmingham, to sell computer equipment.

He has watched the market go from a thriving shopping centre with thousands of customers to a ghost town. Stallholders deserted their pitches after the former market operators pulled out when they could not agree a new lease with Walsall Council.

The council said it would revive the 40-year-old market but has struggled to win back support.

"The council has still been charging me full rent at £25 per week even though I am the only trader there," said Mr Sajid.

"I think everyone has left because there was no incentive."They should have offered something like the first ten weeks free to allow trade to pick back up again but they didn't. I stayed here because my regular customers were still coming, but even they have stopped coming now. I am taking a pitch at a car boot sale in Lichfield Road about a mile away instead."

Mr Sajid remains a trader at Walsall's Wednesday market and Bescot market.

Former mayor of Walsall Richard Worrall, aged 65, of Burrowes Street, said: "I think that the council should now carry out an urgent, wide and thorough consultation with the real experts, the local people, High Street traders and market traders."

Walsall's regeneration chief Councillor Adrian Andrew today said the council was committed to developing a new market square in the town.

"I am grateful to the trader for sticking to Brownhills Market for as long as he has done," he said. "We accept it is in the doldrums, but the town centre itself is vibrant.

"In the long term we are still committed to having a market in the town in a nice new market square."