Call for more events in Alnwick's Market Square

Businessman Martin Harrington, also a town councillor, feels there are too many periods when there is nothing happening in the square.

“This is something I identified two years ago but the issue just seems to trundle on and on,” he said.

“I’m not being negative in that, it’s just that we seem to have an event and then nothing happens apart from the normal markets.

“It’s a really under-estimated and under-used space. If people are coming to the castle and gardens on a February or March day and they come into the town they’ll think there is nothing happening.

“We’ve got to try and make more of an effort to use that market place and give a better offer.”

“The more events that are happening in the market square, the more we can push it,” agreed Mark Brassell, director of The Alnwick Garden.

“It mirrors how we’ve created financial stability at the Garden. We’ve tried to make sure there is always something happening.

“We need to capitalise on the Grand Lantern Parade we do every year. The whole idea of that was to give a real boost to the town, with the lights switch-on giving a good night’s trading and then the lantern parade giving another good night.

“If we had a whole schedule of events for the town in a brochure that we could hand out to those 4,000 people in the Market Square, we can encourage them to return.”