The post you are reporting:
David I'm sorry you think I am sulking - absolutely nothing of the kind, not at all.
This is a long reply, please stick with it.
It has nothing to do with refusing to face the facts, I'm afraid your costings are completely wrong and out of kilter and all based on an utterly false premis.
As Dave1 said, you don't buy new stalls for stall-holders, they all have their own, you don't have to worry about storing them either as they bring them and take them away too.
Let's list your questions David:
1) Roger, I notice you're banging the market drum on two threads, to be honest its starting to come across as though you're sulking, when the reality is you are simply refusing to face the financial facts.
Answer: already answered above.
2) As I pointed out to you last week, the Town Team is endeavouring to start a weekly market with very limited resources; if you could answer these questions, which I have asked you a couple of times previously, it might help everybody.
Answer: If Louise had responded to the guy I think would be best to run the market (he emailed her but received no reply), you would have started it by now and know how to as well - without spending large sums of money.
3) The market manager - where would one be found and who would be involved in the recruitment process ?
Answer: You don't need a recruitment process, this chap has been doing it for 7 years, there's nothing you can teach him about running a street market. I'll send you his email address and mobile phone number.
The Town Council, Town Team and District Council do not know how to run a market, but this guy does, don't waste money unnecessarily.
4) Who would fund this?
Answer: It would fund itself, the stall-holders have their own stalls, even Farmers-Market people have their own stalls and if you do need any for new entrepreneurs who want to try their hands at it, second-hand ones can be bought quite cheap and they can be rented out to them.
As the money starts to come in from the stall-holders there'll be money to spend on advertising the market, perhaps the KOS papers on Saturday and Sunday, this would attract people from around Kent, not just around Dover.
5) Who would the manager report to and where would he be based? Who would employ him ?
Answer: He would report to the appointed Town-Team representative. I have said in my paper, that the Town-Team set up a body to be the responsible body for it; after you have paid the market manager his money, or he takes his money from that received from the stall-holders and then it is banked. The necessary paper-work will be done by him and copies given to the Town Team and the District Council. It would be a part-time job, from around 08.00 to probably around 17.00. It won't be a PAYE job.
I thought I read that the District Council are giving you rent-free, the old George Locke premises in the Market Square; if so, he could be based there, but he would be out and about with between 30 and 40 stalls to look after, he'll be quite busy.
6) The market stalls, you think 12 is inadequate - how would you fund the purchase of, lets say, 30, and where would they be stored?
Answer: you don't pay for stalls, the stall-holders already have their own; they bring them and take them away, so you don't have to worry about storing them.
You may want to buy a few second hand ones for people who haven't run a stall before and want to try it, but you can buy them cheap and rent them out for a reasonable fee - reasonable, so it is still worth it to them.
7) How would the market be advertised and marketed ?
Answer: Banners, newspaper advertising - local and Kent wide. You could also advertise in one or both of the Associations that look after market traders - one has a weekly paper and the other has a monthy magazine.
When I first started this initiative with Cameron MacSwween and the Dover Chamber, I had costed advertsing in their publications and the KOS papers and had approached DTC, DDC and KCC for funding. Each one had pledged £890, but because I was dismissed before it could be done, the money never got paid out (as far as I am aware).
8) If a profit were made what would happen to the market and who would administer it?
Answer: A profit would/will be made; stall-holders pay; money banked; manager paid, Veolia paid to take away the rubbish generated and the residue shared between the Town-Team (for the benefit of future projects that will benefit Dover) and the Distict Council and the paperwork completed by the market manager. Not sure what you mean by "what would happen to the market" ?
9) Similarly if it lost money who would underwrite the loss?
Answer: What loss ?
10) The business plan you have prepared is not actually a plan, its a dream, which as I said last week would require Year 1 funding in the region of £60k, yet you have no specifics at all as to where this would come from. You are a District Councillor, does DDC have funds available? And if so why haven't they been untilised previously?
Answer: I haven't drawn up a Business Plan at all, I have never pushed it as a Business Plan - it is a discussion paper; I'm sure you know what a Business Plan looks like.
£60,000 is absolute nonsense, a ridiculous sum and I have no idea why you scare people with that sort of talk. With all due respect David - and I mean that, you/the Town-Team have shown that you know nothing of how to run a market; I ask you, please listen to those who know and the chap who contacted Louise earlier in the year and received no response, is the guy you must talk to - he knows much more than me.
DDC do not have any funds for this and none are needed; there will I'm sure be some pre-market launch work, like going round to the various other street-markets and farmers-
markets, but this will be done by the Market Manager, but that payment will come from income generated by the market stall-holders.
11) Roger, I'm sorry to appear confrontational but you are condemning the efforts of others who are putting in a lot of time and effort voluntarily, whilst waving around a completely uncosted and unfunded Business Plan.
Answer: Yes you do appear (unnecessarily) confrontational David; I am not condemning other peoples efforts, but you are all barking up the wrong tree because, none of you know anything about markets or how to run them - and you don't need to know either, but you must listen to those who do.
As I said earlier, it is NOT a business Plan, The new Market Manager will make up one of those.
12) If you have a plan to raise £60k to fund your plans, please accept my invitation on behalf of the Town Team to come along to a meeting and present your case, I can assure you it will be met with a very positive response. Answer: I don't have a plan to raise £60,000 because it is totally unnecessary to do so.
Your last sentence above - "On the other hand, if you have some vague notion about a market manager, 30 market stalls and local advertising without a penny in funding I suggest you have a re-think", has been answered in the previous paragraphs.
Roger
PS: Keith, don't make inane comments you know nothing about.