Frankton Market proposal to be presented next week

Terry Forlong hopes to present a proposal about changes to the Frankton Market  to the Hamilton City Council next week.

Forlong, along with Frankton Business Association chairman Jim Ashton and market organiser Vinod Bhikha, met on Monday with Phil Lang, a barrister who has been working for Forlongs for the last two years, to discuss how to present the case to the council.

“We’d resolved last week what we were going to do,” Forlong said. “Monday’s meeting was really just how we’re going to do it.

“We have to present it in a clear, precise format that the council could easily make a decision on.”

Forlong said that Lang would meet with a roading engineer on Friday, and they hope to have the proposal prepared to present to the council this week or early next week.

“What we are looking to do is locate most of the market into the west end of Commerce Street between Kent Street and High Street,” Bhikha said.

Forlong said how long the council takes to decide was the “million dollar question”, but that it would be nice if they could decide in a month.

The council’s decision will likely be the deciding factor in whether or not Forlongs drops its court case against the market.

“It’s unlikely that we’ll need to proceed with our legal challenge because everything is going the way we’d like it,” Forlong said.

“We’re 99% there. I think Vinod, Jim and I totally agree on what we want to do.”

The Frankton Market, which has been running on Saturdays for 27 years, was set to end due to Forlongs’ court case, which was filed over concern at the effect on business at the Frankton store.

The market continued last week though, as former All Black Graham Whiting has offered the use of space in his Frankton Hotel, which moves the stalls further from the store.

“We’re all very relieved and all very happy with it,” Forlong said.

“It hasn’t been easy for anybody and I think it’s quite nice that everybody’s got a win-win out of this process.”

The market will continue in its usual spot for the meantime.