After denying a community group access to their usual market stall last Friday and treating them like “lepers”, the town council have asked the group to trade outside the market during the summer season.

A community group asked the town council why they were denied access to the market square where they have had a stall for eight months paying the full price which was supported by Cllr Steve Smith.

Dartmouth Community Chest were denied access to the market square last Friday and told they would need to move outside to the car park without prior agreement, claim the community group.

At the full council meeting of Dartmouth Town Council on Monday, June 4, representatives from the Dartmouth Community Chest questioned why the group had been denied access to their usual premises in the market and who gave instruction to the market manager to prevent them from going in.

Councillors including deputy mayor Cllr Fred Pritchard-Tagg said the agreement had been made at a previous meeting attended by the council market working group and representatives from the Dartmouth Community Chest, that the group would move outside in the car park during the high season.

Representatives from the community group said no agreement was made at the meeting on February 22, and asked why the group was asked to move when the stall tables remained empty.

Linda Goss said the meeting in February was “an act of coercion” and an attempt to make “more acceptable the act to remove the community chest from the market” before being halted by the former mayor Cllr Richard Cooke.

Cllr Pritchard-Tagg said it was felt best to move the community chest out of the market because it would be “advantageous” to move them to the carpark for ease of access because the group have a vehicle that could be parked next to an outside stall.

Members of the public persisted and questioned why it was necessary to move the community group out of the market while the tables where they usually held the stall remained empty.

The mayor, Cllr Rob Lyon said the town council “own the market square” and have “lots of obligations not just to the community chest, who do do a very good job and we are very pleased with them and we want their work to continue”.

The town council also have an obligation to the “whole of the town” and to all of the “rate payers” added the mayor. “We have to make our judgement on what happens with all those other things in mind.”

He said the move outside was felt to be more “convenient”. “We will decide where everybody goes in that market, it is under the ownership of the town council.”

He suggested a further meeting could be arranged to discuss this with the community group.

During the meeting, Cllr Steve Smith said he would like clarification over the breakdown of communications and asked for the mayor to assure it won’t happen again and the group be “welcomed back inside” the market square. He asked that the council and the community group work as a team in future.

“There are lots of comments on Facebook that really concern me. I appreciate what they [Dartmouth Community Chest] do, I know for a fact the majority of people outside these doors appreciate what they do because a lot of people depend on them.

“The only time they can raise money is through the stall in the market and from what’s happened recently, looks very like they’ve been treated like lepers.”

The mayor said he would be very happy to take the matter forward and organise a meeting but said even though we want the community chest to succeed and flourish, we also have responsibilities to the rest of the people in this town.

Cllr Tessa de Galleani said she thought Cllr Smith should declare an interest in the subject because a close relation of his is a beneficiary and volunteer for the group. To which Cllr Smith said he was very proud of this.

After which, members of the public said Cllr de Galleani should also declare an interest as a trader in the market and said she had “constantly whipped up this nastiness”.

Dawn Shepherd from Dartmouth Community Chest told the Chronicle that she was eager to find out why the council is happy for the group to be inside the market in the winter when no one else is around but why the council feels it is necessary to put the group outside during the summer season.

She said when the proposal to go outside was suggested at the previous meeting, the volunteers for the group were reluctant to go outside due to weather conditions and the safety and practicality when children and pensioners visit the stall.

Dawn also said the council had claimed that other market stall holders had claimed the community group had been intimidating and threatening. Dawn said all the volunteers would never do anything of the sort.

Previously the community chest had applied for a shop in the market but had been unsuccessful. Now the rules have been changed so no charitable group can rent a shop in the market.

She said too much of her energy and her volunteers energy has been focussed on fighting this battle instead of helping those in need through the community chest.

The work done by Dartmouth Community Chest is vital she explained. It fills the gap and the need in the town which is created when funds are cut.