Pop up traders sought for Peterborough's new outdoors market as part of plans to grow the venue

Plans have been unveiled to expand Peterborough’s new outdoors market – even though it has still to reopen.

Now traders willing to operate pop up stalls for two or three days a week are being sought by Peterborough City Council as it looks at possibly enlarging the new Bridge Street venue.

The move comes as the council complete final adjustments to the new 12 wooden kiosks that make up the outdoors market, that had originally been expected to open in April after being moved to make way for an apartments development at its former site in Northminster.

There will be five traders in the outdoor wooden kiosks – a greengrocer, handbags/luggage, African fabrics and textiles, coffee and sandwiches, DVD and Retro computer games – and these will use all the 12 units, with some traders taking double-kiosks.

The council says that all the kiosks spaces are now full and an opening date will be announced soon

A council spokesperson said: “We are currently making some final adjustments to the stalls and working with traders to help them fit out their stalls ready for opening.

“We are also looking for traders to begin operating in the pop up stalls for two to three days a week, or when events are happening in the city.

She added: "We wanted to start the market with a core offering with traders who we know are profitable.

"We could look at extending the wooden kiosks in the future and we will base this on the popularity of the pop up market stalls, if they are successful and trading well, we could create additional wooden kiosks to make them permanent."

Two main reasons have been given by the council for the delay re-opening the outdoors market. Firstly, it was a wood shortage caused by global supply chain crisis and then it was the unique design of the kiosks which made construction a lengthy process.

The delay has cost the council a total of £40,000 in payments to six traders who were told to take an extended holiday while the market was built. Those payments ended at the start of August.

Anyone interested in running a pop up stall should email [email protected].