By Denisia Murat
The relocation of Leicester market has been a challenge for its traders as many people had no idea at first where their new location was.
Now, another challenge has hit them – an archaeological dig project is going ahead, delaying the end of the revamp of the market.
The archaeological team from Leicester University is expected to conduct an archaeological dig at the old Leicester market before the renovation work can begin.
However, this is bad news for the market traders meaning they will be forced to remain relocated for a longer period of time.
Odel Pittard, a market trader, described the challenges since the beginning of the project and gave her opinion on the proposed archaeological dig.
“It affected the trade massively,” said Ms Pittard.
She said that the relocation of the traders’ stalls caused confusion, adding: “People didn’t know where Green Dragon Square was.”
But she tried to remain positive about the long-term plans. When asked if she hopes that the archaeological team will find something, she said: “I sort of hope that they don’t.
“The longer that it takes for them to get the market done is more time that I’ve got to stay here,” she said, hoping that market traders will be able to return to their traditional location as soon as possible.
Another trader, who did not want to give his name, had similar responses and described the impact of the relocation as “very negative.”
He said: “If something is found, it is gonna delay movement [back].”
