The Rising Costs.

I heard from a member of the Street Market Committee last night about the ever rising costs of staging the event due to increased insurance payments and the increasingly obtrusive use of health and safety regulations by the local authorities. Whilst we may well object to paying to walk down Fore street on Street Market Day we should all remember the costs of staging the event even before the first penny is raised for charity.

the Street Market has had an excellent saftey record down the years and those involved in the organisation of the event probably have a better understanding of the health and safety issues then a bunch of MDDC jobsworths. You sometimes think that some local authorities will never be satisfied until every last public event is shut down and that total health and safety rules supreme. I suppose if that ever happens the only saving grace will be that a whole layer of local government officials might become redundant but I suspect that they would just move on to enforcing their will within the home. I am glad that I grew up in the era when you could still have your carnival floats on a lorry. Heaven knows what the healh and safety police would make of a procession of heavy goods vehicles going up our narrow main streets today.