Growers' Market to open later

The Growers' Market will not be operating on Anzac Day, April 25. Photo / Duncan Brown

Hastings City Growers' Market will open later from tomorrow, opening at 8am and closing at noon.

Permission for one block of Heretaunga St East to be closed until 1pm was given by the Hastings District Council yesterday, which also rescinded an earlier permission allowing closure of a second block.

Two blocks were originally planned for the market when it opened in November but only one was needed due to a lack of vendors, including Farmers' Market stallholders worried it would undermine their Sunday market on the outskirts of Hastings.

Hastings City Business Association manager Susan McDade said the market aimed to bring more people into the CBD, as the Thursday night market had.

The previous hours 7am to 10.30am were not popular with Saturday shoppers. The largest volume of foot traffic occurred after 10am, forcing vendors to turn away customers in time for the road to be reopened.

Retailers surrounding the street market asked for the later hours because it attracted more people to their shops, she said.

No submissions on the changed road closure application were received. Council officers informed the Farmers' Market and the Black Barn Growers' Market, which operates in Havelock North from 9am to 12pm on Saturdays during summer.

The Growers' Market will not be operating on Anzac Day, April 25. It is modelled on the successful Whangarei Growers' Market.

A market study said its $3.66 million turnover created an additional $5.84 million of activity for the Northland economy and was responsible for 112 jobs, with 69 per cent of market attendees shopping elsewhere in the city before going home.

Ms McDade visited it two weeks ago and said: "I got into town at 10am and there were already vendors packing up - most had sold out."