Our teams continue to support traders after the necessary closure of Barrow market hall this week on health and safety grounds.
As of yesterday, all 12 traders have been moved out and where appropriate their stock placed into storage.
Every trader has received an immediate compassionate payment, to ensure they have some financial breathing space at a very difficult moment.
We continue to support them with regular updates and each has been assigned a key contact for queries and concerns and we will be looking at what more can be done.
We are working at pace to create a new Market Village option through the Heart of Barrow. Prior to the Market Village, we expect to have temporary cabins available that can accommodate up to seven traders, along with an additional storage unit.
These could be on site in approximately four to six weeks, and we are doing everything possible to fast‑track delivery so traders have a viable space to continue operating. We will provide details on this as soon as possible.
We have also held positive conversations with partners who have identified some potential retail space for a few traders. We are also going to enable some traders to operate from the outdoor market.
A spokesperson for Westmorland and Furness Council said: “We would like to assure the community that we are listening and everything possible is being done to support traders and to bring forward short, medium and long term plans to help the town centre thrive.
“We are committed to providing further updates on immediate plans for the town centre and our teams continue to prepare for discussions with Westmorland and Furness Council’s Cabinet in March on longer-term options.”