I emailed Southwark (just used their general email address, no idea who to contact) and no response. Any ideas who would be good to ask? Does anyone have any contacts there?
In terms of competing with the highstreet, the market in West Hampstead has butchers, fishmongers, bakeries, chilli jam, cheese, vegetables and cake stalls. And occasionally alcohol! We dont have our own butchers, fishmongers, green grocers etc (I dont think Sainsburys counts!), in fact we are sadly lacking in these departments, so I dont think there is worry there? Possibly/probably competition for Hills and Parks for cheese and the like and the cake places like Pat-a-Cakes but from what Ive read H&P started as a stall so could sell there, as could Pat-a-Cakes etc. ....if that isnt against the rules of the farmers market, Ill check (they are all certified). The market in W Hamps operates alongside a busy high street (of course W Hamps highstreet is more established but bringing footfall to HOP high street could be a good thing?).
I would agree with a certain percentage of the market being set aside for local businesses, at free or reduced rates, as well as farmers selling (which I think are British farms so we are still supporting a good cause), it could be the best compromise?
Anyway, I emailed the London Farmers Markets http://www.lfm.org.uk/markets/westhampstead/
And they have reponded saying 'Did you have a site in mind? It would ideally need to be 30m x 30m and hard standing'. So we need to do a little investigation with that in mind!
Any ideas? I believe someone From Blythe Hill Fields posted to this thread earlier, if you are still reading this, please do let us know if any sites there would work!
Can we change the name of this thread somehow? Would be good to get a wide base of opinions from users of the site, so we will need to attract attention! Am pretty new to this site so it's beyond me at the moment.