There will be a floating market at Bradford on Avon Lower Wharf this weekend, 29th-30th July. Many of the K&A’s talented craftspeople, artists and traders will be selling their wares from 10am to 6pm this Saturday and Sunday.
What will not be at the market however, is a CRT fund-raising stall. Neither will there be a stall by the National Bargee Travellers Association (NBTA), or any local boating group or local charities. Last summer both CRT and the NBTA had stalls at the floating market. CRT then told the market organisers that it would not support the market unless the NBTA was barred. The Christmas 2016 floating market had a prominent CRT fundraising effort. Some traders were angry that CRT had given themselves a clear run to raise funds without being faced by boaters who could tell the public what CRT was really doing to liveaboard boaters without home moorings. Other traders weren’t happy with political stalls like the NBTA, saying that it created the wrong atmosphere.
The market organisers tried hard to accommodate both viewpoints, but finally decided that a market was a market, and neither CRT, the NBTA, or any other organisation should be included, just traders. So get yourselves down to Bradford on Avon and have a lovely time and support our local boat-based traders!
Tags: arts and culture, Bradford-on-Avon, CRT, floating market, NBTA, trading boats
Hi Sarah, could you tell me please whether this is true; “CRT then told the market organisers that it would not support the market unless the NBTA was barred.”
I feel the information given here is deliberately misleading and has reached the attention of CRT and therefore jeopardized the market with less than a week to go.
To clarify: Every boater selling at and visiting the events speaks to the public to inform them of the issues we face. We cannot refuse a crt a stall as the event is held on their land and requires their permission to happen. There are two canal charities in attendance at this market, The Canal Ministries and The Wilts and Berks Trust, neither of which have a political leaning.
There was no intention to mislead anyone by this article. We apologise wholeheartedly if we inadvertently gave the impression that there was a conflict between the organisers of the market and the traders. The reference to accommodating both viewpoints referred to on the one hand the view that CRT should have a fund-raising stall, and on the other hand the view that the market should include a liveaboard boaters’ campaigning stall. The view of all the market traders and organisers was that neither type of stall was appropriate for the market.
However we cannot understand how this article alerted CRT to something that CRT had known about for weeks, nor why this should jeopardise the market. It was agreed between the market organisers and CRT several weeks before the market opened that there would not be a CRT fund-raising stall or any political stalls in the summer 2017 market. CRT’s reaction seems completely incompetent. It looks very much like CRT is attempting to shift the blame for the failings of its own internal communications onto the market organisers.
For an insight into the behaviour of rogue organisations, have a look at this film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHrhqtY2khc