Council encouraged by Market Hall return

Published: 14 July 2020

Derby Market Hall re-opened to visitors last week for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and we are delighted with the response from the public.

Almost 900 people visited the market on opening day Tuesday 7^th July and the numbers increased each day. On Saturday over 1250 shoppers came through the historic venue and by the close of the week the Market Hall had welcomed almost 5500 visitors.

As traders and customers slowly get used to this ‘new normal’ we are hopeful and confident that these numbers will continue to climb and that we can continue to improve the experience for everyone working and visiting.

Traders are also delighted to be back at work and to see their old customers safe and well as well as welcoming new ones.

We’d like to thank all the staff and the traders who have all worked incredibly hard over the past few weeks to carry out risk assessments and put safety measures in place to enable us to open the Market Hall. The restrictions will be constantly reviewed to ensure we are inline with the most up to date guidance, for example, wearing masks from the end of next week, and to ease them if and when it is safe to do so in the coming days and weeks.

Councillor Barker, Cabinet Member for Governance and Licensing said:

The Markets team and traders working together have really done a fantastic job and I’m very proud of what they’ve achieved all whilst having the roof repairs continuing above them. The daily progress has been most encouraging, and I hope continues as things improve. The period between now and Christmas is, of course, really important for market traders and we will continue to support them during this period in readiness for the next phase of transformation works at the market in early 2021.

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