Stockport Council are seeking Heritage Lottery Funding to refurbish the Glass Umbrella. Readers of the weblog will be aware of my efforts to publicise the consultation process. I met with Steve Burns who assured me that two thirds of the Market Traders favoured Option 4.
Barbara Mulliner, a Glass Umbrella trader, wrote me arguing against the refurbishment. (See previous posting.) To back up her point, she has provided a list signed by 44 Market Hall traders showing that: 41 favour Option 2 (repair and maintenance only); 2 favour Option 4 (the HLF refurbishment); and 1 cannot make a decision on the details presented by the Council.
This gives the Trust a connundrum. We favour investment in the Glass Umbrella and worry that doing nothing but repairing the building will do nothing to counter a slow decline in the market. But what is the value of a plan that the Glass Umbrella traders are almost unanimous against?
