AN ATTEMPT to save a street food market in a tourist town is to be made today.
Donegal County Council will be asked to consider a special motion to block an order to close the twice-monthly food and craft market in Donegal town.
The closure order is being made following a complaint by one trader against the 20-stall market that organisers claim draws thousands of visitors to the town.
Organisers also say several stall-holders lost regular jobs in the downturn and are bidding to build their own market products businesses.
The lone shopkeeper who wants to shut the market down claims loss of business but other store-owners say they are benefiting from a heavier footfall on market days in the Diamond area in the town centre.
The complainant’s name is secret even from county councillors who were told at an area electoral meeting for south Donegal that the decision to close rests with executives alone.
Executive officers said they were obliged to close the market following the complaint that it was operating in breach of a casual trading bylaw established 16 years ago.
Executives said they are set for “immediate” service of the order unless today’s meeting of Donegal County Council finds a solution.
There is an emergency motion down seeking the establishment of a bylaw classifying it as a farm market which could remove the casual trading ban.
Rosina Patton, a stall owner from Ballyshannon, said: “We had two incomes in our family. Then I was made redundant and my husband, a soldier, had his pay cut . . . If the market closes we’ll be devastated again.”