Page 7 - Market Times February 2022
P. 7

FEATURE • BILLINGHAM
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   Shamila Mahmood recently returned to Billingham market with her colourful offer of scarves, hats, Asian jewellery and accessories after a break from trading there during the pandemic
Kym Bell is trying her hand at market trading with her new business, Kym’s Party Lite, specialising in perfumed candles and wax melts
  Linda Crossling is a Romany gypsy and clairvoyant who tells fortunes from her caravan on Billingham market
than inviting shoppers into her gypsy wagon and telling their fortunes.
“I just love making people happy and that’s what I do,” she said.
And what if the future holds challenges? “I have to tell them that too,” Linda added. So what of the future of Billingham
market? Linda doesn’t have any specific insights, but Richard says the council is bidding for £20 million from the Govern- ment’s Levelling Up fund.
“The plan is to buy back the town centre from St Modwen’s and put in investment to improve things,” he said.
Unfortunately the first bid was not successful but the council is hopeful that a resubmitted bid will have more luck.
It has not yet been revealed exactly what the plans are, should the bid be successful, but the indications are that the investment will benefit the market, either directly or indirectly.
 FACTS & FIGURES
l Market day: Monday and Friday
l Market rent: £22
l Billingham’s claim to fame: Billingham on the River Tees grew around its chemical industry, starting with fertiliser manufacture just after the First World War. ICI was a major employer from 1966 when it began producing plastics there, but it sold off its Billingham businesses in the 1990s and they are now run by other chemical companies. The town is famous for staging the Billingham International Folklore Festival every August.
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