Following the change in restrictions, Levenshulme Market will remain closed for the remainder of November and so we have cancelled the next three markets:
- Saturday 14th November
- Saturday 21st November
- Saturday 28th November
We’ve looked into how feasible it would be to temporarily run as an ‘essentials only’ market, but this model would require us to further reduce our trading capacity, increase onsite social distancing measures and temporarily amend the messaging we send out to customers. All of this would be prohibitively expensive.
When the new restrictions were announced, NABMA (National Association of British Market Authorities) and NMTF (National Market Traders Federation), the two main industry bodies for markets, began a joint campaign for markets to be given parity with supermarkets and allowed to continue operating as normal. The government turned down their request on the basis that the intention of Public Health England is to reduce the number of venues open to the general public in order to try to slow the spread of Covid-19 infections. How fair this is is up for debate, but we do think the all-round safest option for our community is to adhere to the official guidance and temporarily close the market.
However, we are working on the assumption that these restrictions will come to an end in December and that we will be back operating as ‘Levenshulme Market Shop & Go’ on Saturday 5th December.
Until then, you can continue to support many of our wonderful traders by ordering from them directly here – we’ll be updating this regularly, so do check back if you don’t spot your favourite stall listed.
Also keep an eye out for our forthcoming Christmas gift guides. We have some incredible items heading your way this festive season and can’t wait to share them with you.
But for now, stay safe and we’ll see you in December.