'The council doesn't want you to see this': Trader leaves Oswestry Market over Brexit sign
A couple have stopped trading at a weekly market after being ordered to take down a ‘Vote Leave’ sign from their stall.
Graham and Margaret Harper, who run Abermule Nursery Gardens, near Newtown, have been trading at Oswestry Market for the past 20 years.
Mr Harper put a ‘vote leave’ sign up during the referendum, and then used it as a wind-break on his stall.
However council bosses ordered him to remove the sign following complaints from two councillors.
He took it down, but put it back up with the words ‘Oswestry Town Council does not want you to see this’.
Now Mr Harper, who has run a plant nursery at Abermule for 44 years says he won’t return unless his sign can go up.
He has started going to other markets in Mid Wales, and said: “I put it up in the referendum, and then we used it as a wind-break and were then told to take it down after two complaints to councillors.
“They had a meeting behind closed doors which I wasn’t allowed to go to, so I sent a letter but they voted that it should come down.
“I am told it is political, but it isn’t, this was based on the referendum and not an election so it isn’t political.
“We have stopped trading there now and will only come back if the sign can go up.”
Mr Harper said he wanted to keep it up until Brexit had been sorted out as a reminder that Britain was not out of the EU yet.
He began at the market when a space became free 20 years ago, when there were around 150 traders..
He believes in the current climate, with the number of traders now significantly less, the council should “be more concerned” about keeping traders.
He said: “We tried to get a space on all markets but they were full, and then a space came up in Oswestry.
“They could pick and chose who they wanted back then, but now numbers are down so they should be concerned with keeping traders at the market.
Town clerk David Preston said the council has a policy for not using stalls for expressing political views and asked Mr Harper to remove the sign.
He appealed and the council again agreed to enforce the policy and Mr Harper decided he would no longer come to the market.
Mr Preston said: “He is a valued trader, we would like him to return but obviously he must comply with the council’s rules and policies.”
