A proposal to bring the weekly Rainbow Region Organic Market into the Lismore CBD has caused some division within the Lismore Chamber of Commerce.

The proposal is to move the Tuesday morning market from the Lismore Showground to Magellan St (between Carrington St and Molesworth St) for a three-month trial period.

Lismore Council’s city centre manager Stephen Nelson said the market was “one element” of the business plan to revive the city centre.

But vice president of the Chamber of Commerce Brenton Shalders said some members had concerns about the impact it would have on the Show Society, which was dependent upon the income received from the organic market.

Mr Shalders said the Chamber of Commerce was prepared to support the three-month trial but would work with the Show Society to try and find a better outcome for them.

Show Society president John Gibson was scheduled to address a special meeting of the Chamber of Commerce board yesterday (Wednesday) at 5pm.

“We don’t want to stop progress in town, but somebody should compensate the Show Society if the markets are moved to town,” Mr Gibson told The Echo.

He said the Tuesday organic market and the Saturday farmers’ market brought in about $25,000 a year to the Show Society.

“It’s a social morning, people love the atmosphere (which) would be lost if it moved to town,” he added.

Brenton Shalders said some retailers had also expressed concerns about market stalls getting a free run in town while they had to pay rates and rent, but said overall there were more people in favour of the idea than there were opposed.

Russell Scott is a regular stallholder at the organic market and has been working toward the move to the CBD.

“The bigger picture is the environment. As far as the organic market is concerned, everybody gains – local farmers, organics, the planet. It’s going to boost the presence of organics in Lismore and there is a great need for that anywhere. Sometimes people get caught up in their own small agenda,” he said. “The bigger picture is for Lismore to revitalise the downtown areas. Retailers will benefit because there are more people coming into town to do their shopping...
It’s a meeting place, it helps build community spirit, and it will help do that in Lismore.”

Caddies Coffee owner Bill Sheaffe, who is also on the Chamber of Commerce board and who has been pushing to have the market in town, said the idea was not something “hatched over a few beers by a few people.”

“This is the culmination

of a whole bunch of research, presented in the Lismore Alive report to Council,” he said. “There is a school of thought to borrow from the European model, which is to have markets right in the centre of town... If it can work there, it must work here.

“It would be wise to look at what happened in Bangalow. There was absolute opposition from the main street traders when (publican) Tom Mooney proposed putting a farmers’ market at the back of the hotel... Now there is really solid support from those traders.”

Stephen Nelson said many other cities of a similar size to Lismore had thriving markets in their CBDs.

“In order to revitalise the city centre, which everyone seems to agree is a desirable occurrence, amongst the key recommendations of the Lismore Alive report was a recommendation to set up markets in the city centre as well as entertainment,” he said. “Organic produce is not widely sold within the city centre, and even in the supermarkets it is grown outside the region, so this is a positive things that it is grown locally. They have very strict certification and of the highest quality, that is a a given.

“The key tenet worldwide is to have life and activity in the city centre so people are drawn to it... Then business and retailers can open their doors and take advantage of those increased people.”

However he said one of the drivers for having the markets in town was to change Lismore from being “a ghost town on the weekends”.

“This won’t assist that primary aim of getting things going on the weekend... (but) in the fullness of time we will be inviting potential stallholders to consider coming in on weekends.”

He said the problem was that there were other successful markets already running across the region, particularly on Sundays.

“Any market will have to be of the best quality and be visually appealing... That will be part of the branding.”