Brownhills market returns bigger than ever

A relaunched market will be bigger than ever when it returns next month - with 100 traders lined up to take part.

Brownhills Market will open on November 4 after it was announced last month LSD Promotions, was to take it over.

New director Dermot McGillicuddy said: "It will be a new-style market. We expect it to be a much bigger market but within the same space."

A change in layout means that an extra 20 stallholders will be accommodated on the Silver Street pitch on Thursdays and Saturdays.

A number of stallholders have already expressed an interest in the returning to the pitch which has been empty since March.

Mr McGillicuddy said: "We are providing pitches and stalls but people will be able to bring their own stalls along as well."

The company operates the popular Bescot Market on the grounds of Walsall Football Club every Sunday.

Three independent operators expressed an interest in taking over the Brownhills pitch after Walsall Council announced it was outsourcing ownership.

It emerged last week that LSD had been awarded a two-year licence to run the site.

The market originally closed in July 2009 after the previous operators failed to negotiate a new lease.

The council took over the market last September operating on Tuesdays and Saturdays but suffered from lack of traders and shoppers.

The Tuesday event was scrapped at the start of the year and remaining traders then snubbed the pitch. Council chiefs have insisted they were keen to revive the market.

Regeneration chief councillor Adrian Andrew said: "We have long said that the market is important to Brownhills. We could have walked away but instead have worked to bring the return of the market."