The organiser of Kirkcaldy’s continental market has hit out at Fife Council, after being told to move from High Street.
Ali Yaich, organiser of the event, says no market will take place this week following local businesses’ concerns about the impact it was having on their trade.
The event, which has frequently visited the town, was scheduled to start today but was called off after a request to move to the Town Square was declined.
The episode has angered Mr Yaich, who says that Fife Council, which administers the market, has messed his business about.
“I’m not at all happy,” he told The Courier. “To make businesses suffer is a shame.
“I have never come across this issue before. We organise 40 markets a year and have never experienced this before.
“I don’t care about the money. It’s the same council and the same department. We have permission to use the area but no licence.”
As a matter of urgent business at their meeting last month, local councillors called on Fife Council to move the continental market from its usual location in High Street to the Town Square, several hundred metres away but out of the main shopping precinct.
Mr Yaich initially applied to host the planned market at the beginning of the year and was surprised to hear of the councillors’ actions when contacted by The Courier last month.
Clarifying the position, Fife Council chief legal officer Iain Matheson said: “We received an application to host a continental market in Kirkcaldy from November 27 to December 1.
“For the past few years a market has taken place in the high street and this is the applicant’s preferred venue. However, the Kirkcaldy area committee, based on feedback from local traders, recommended that instead of the market taking place in the high street, it be moved to the town square.
“We have been in touch with the applicant and offered the alternative site but this has been declined.”