Perth Voice Interactive

THERE’LL be no Leederville farmers’ markets this month, with operators deciding they couldn’t meet Vincent city council’s conditions and remain viable.

Markets owner Paul Ashbolt has described the outcome as a “train wreck”.

But mayor John Carey says the council’s already in talks with a non-profit outfit looking at a market in the same spot.

Mr Ashbolt had initially planned to re-open in September — he was previously at another site — after the council offered him a spot in the carpark at the south end of Oxford Street.

He’d asked the council to waive a $20,000 annual fee, but the council knocked him back, saying it covered the money it would have made from parking fees.

The final straw for Mr Ashbolt was the council’s decision to ban his stallholders from selling hot drinks, in order to protect the interests of nearby cafes. The same rule had been applied late in the game at his old site and Mr Ashbolt calculates it resulted in a 30 per cent loss of trade because markets shoppers like to grab a coffee while shopping for their vegies.

Mr Carey says the council’s been straight down the line all the way.

“I had multiple meetings with the operator, we went out of our way as an organisation,” he told the Voice.

“They were getting double the amount of space for the same price as they were with the other spot, so council was effectively subsidising it.

“I think the operator thought we should say ‘have the land for free and do what you want’. But this is public land and a public asset, and there’s a loss of revenue to the city.”

In announcing the cancellation, Mr Ashbolt said his dealings with Mr Carey, “up to this point have been impressive in terms of responding to concerns”, but “this is the first occasion where we consider that he has gotten it badly wrong, resulting in this train wreck”.

by DAVID BELL