Trader terms and market rules

Trader terms and conditions

1. About the market and these terms

The Shortstown Local Produce Market is run by the New Cardington Residents Association (NCRA) on Beauvais Square, Shortstown, under the market charter granted to Bedford by King Henry II in 1166 and under licence from the landowner, New Cardington Estate Management Company Ltd.

These terms are the agreement between you, the trader, and NCRA. By booking a pitch on shortstown.co.uk you accept them in full. They apply to every market you attend, along with any reasonable instruction given on the day by the market team or our volunteer marshals.

We have kept them as short and plain as we can. If anything is unclear, ask us before you book.

2. Who can trade

The market is for local producers and makers. You must have grown, reared, baked, brewed, cooked or made what you sell, and your business must be based within about 20 miles of Shortstown.

We do not accept resellers of bought in or mass produced goods. If part of your range is bought in, tell us when you apply and we will decide whether it fits.

Local charities and community groups are welcome by arrangement. Contact us before booking.

NCRA decides who trades. We may decline or limit an application if a product line is already well represented, or if we think it is not right for the market. We will always tell you why.

3. Booking and payment

Pitches are booked and paid for in advance through your trader account on shortstown.co.uk. The pitch fee is £15 per 3m x 3m pitch per market (an introductory price), one flat fee for everyone. NCRA is not VAT registered, so no VAT is charged. Payment is taken securely by card through Stripe when you book.

Once you have paid, we review your booking and your documents (section 4) and email you to confirm it. Until we confirm, the pitch is not yours. If we cannot accept your booking, we will tell you why and refund your pitch fee in full.

Bookings are personal to you and your business. They cannot be passed to anyone else.

Your account holds your booking history, documents and pitch allocation. Keep your details up to date.

4. Documents you must upload before your first market

Public liability insurance in the name of your business, valid on the market date. If you sell food or drink, run rides or children's activities, or use gas, a generator or mains electrics, you need at least £5 million of cover, which matches the level Bedford Borough Council requires on its own markets. All other traders, such as crafts, gifts and plants, need at least £2 million.

If you sell food or drink: your food business registration with your local council, your latest food hygiene rating, and a note of how you manage allergens.

If you cook or heat food with gas: a current Gas Safe certificate for your appliances and details of your fire extinguisher.

If you use any mains electrical equipment: PAT test certificates.

If you want to use a generator: the make, model and specification, so we can approve it in advance (section 8).

If you sell alcohol: your premises licence or temporary event notice covering the market date.

Upload everything to your trader account. We may ask to see the originals on the day. You cannot trade without them and no refund is due if you turn up without them.

5. Cancellation and refunds

Pitch fees are not refunded if you cancel or do not turn up, whatever the reason. Please only book dates you can make.

If NCRA cancels a market, or closes it before 11am, for example because of severe weather or a safety issue, you will get a full refund or a credit for a future market, whichever you prefer. If we have to close the market after 11am, you will be offered a credit of half the pitch fee towards a future market.

If you cannot attend, tell us as soon as you can and at least 48 hours before the market so we can offer the pitch to someone else. Two no shows without notice may mean we do not accept future bookings.

6. Market day timings

Set up from 8.30am. All vehicles must be off the square by 9.15am.

Trading is 9.30am to 1pm. Please be ready to trade at 9.30am and do not pack up before 1pm unless the market team tells you to.

No vehicles are allowed back onto the square until 1pm and only once the marshals say it is safe. Please have your pitch cleared and clean by 2pm.

Unload at the position the marshals show you, then move your vehicle to the car park. Drive at walking pace with hazard lights on, and never reverse without someone guiding you.

Traders park in the public car park next to the square, leaving the spaces nearest the shops for shoppers.

7. Your pitch and gazebo

A pitch is 3m x 3m. You will be given a pitch number on the market plan and must set up where you are put.

You provide your own gazebo, tables and coverings, and they must be clean and in good condition. NCRA has a small number of gazebos that can be lent to local traders who have none. Ask when you book.

Every gazebo must be weighted on all four legs, with at least 13kg on each leg. No pegs or anchors may be driven into the paving. A gazebo without proper weights will not be allowed up. This is the one rule we will never relax.

Keep everything within your pitch. Do not block the walkways between stalls or the entrances to the square.

Goods should be displayed on tables or stands, not on the ground, except plants and pottery.

You are responsible for any damage your stall or vehicle causes to the square, its furniture or its planting, and NCRA may recover the cost of repair from you.

8. Power, generators and gas

Generators are not normally allowed. A silent inverter type generator may be permitted if you ask us first and upload the make, model and specification to your account, and we confirm approval in writing before the market. Do not bring a generator that has not been approved. It will not be used.

Approved generators must be placed where the public cannot reach them, with cables protected and out of walkways. No refuelling on site. If a generator is noisier than expected we will ask you to switch it off.

When electrical sockets are fitted to the lamp posts on the square, power will be available to a limited number of pitches by prior request. All equipment must be outdoor rated, PAT tested and connected with proper outdoor connectors and RCD protection. Cables across walkways must be covered.

LPG cylinders must be secured upright outside the gazebo, connected with proper hose and regulator, with a dry powder fire extinguisher within reach. Only bring the cylinders you need. Paraffin appliances are not allowed.

9. Food and drink

If you sell food or drink you must be registered as a food business with your local council and comply with food hygiene, allergen and labelling law. This is your responsibility, not ours.

Keep food covered and off the ground, keep chilled food chilled with a thermometer to prove it, wash hands regularly, cover cuts with blue plasters, and keep a first aid kit at your stall.

Allergen information must be available for everything you sell, either on the label or on a clear sign.

Samples are welcome but must be served hygienically and with allergen information to hand.

Alcohol may only be sold with a valid premises licence or temporary event notice held by you, uploaded before the market.

An environmental health officer may visit. Please help them.

10. What you can and cannot sell

You may sell the goods described in your application. If you want to add a new line, tell us first.

You may not sell counterfeit goods, weapons, knives, tobacco, vapes, fireworks, live animals or anything illegal, offensive or unsafe. We will report counterfeit goods to Trading Standards.

Prices must be clearly shown, and any claims about your goods must be true.

11. Waste and leaving the square tidy

Take all of your waste away with you, including packaging, food waste and waste water. The public bins are for shoppers, not for trade waste.

Nothing may be poured into the drains or onto the planting.

Leave your pitch as you found it. If we have to clear up after you, we may charge you and decline future bookings.

12. How we treat each other

Be friendly and courteous to shoppers, other traders, our volunteers and the businesses around the square. Many of our marshals are volunteers giving up their Sunday.

Violence, threats, abuse or discrimination of any kind will end your booking on the spot and you will not be invited back.

No smoking or vaping at your stall or while serving. No alcohol may be drunk on site by traders.

Music, amplifiers, and A boards outside your pitch are only allowed with our agreement.

Well behaved dogs on leads are welcome at the market. You may ask a customer to keep a dog away from open food.

13. Weather

The market goes ahead in rain. Bring sides for your gazebo and dress for it.

High wind is the real risk on an open square. If the forecast for the market hours shows gusts above about 30 mph, or conditions on the day are unsafe, NCRA will cancel or close the market. We will decide by 7am on the day and tell you by text or email, and on shortstown.co.uk.

If NCRA cancels a market or closes it early, refunds and credits are as set out in section 5. If you decide not to attend because of the weather when the market goes ahead, no refund is due.

You are responsible for your own stall at all times. If you feel your gazebo is unsafe, take it down. Never leave a gazebo unattended in wind.

14. Insurance, risk and liability

You are responsible for your stall, stock, equipment, vehicle, staff and helpers, and for anything that happens because of them. That is what your public liability insurance is for.

You agree to cover NCRA, its committee, volunteers and the landowner against any claim, loss, damage or cost arising from your trading at the market, except where caused by our negligence.

NCRA is not responsible for loss or damage to your property, or for loss of trade if a market is cancelled, closed early or quieter than hoped.

You must follow the market risk assessment, which is available from the market team, and any safety instruction given by a marshal.

15. Accidents and incidents

Report any accident, injury, near miss or damage to a marshal or the market team straight away, however minor. We keep a record and will ask you to help us fill it in.

There is a first aid kit at the welcome gazebo. Call 999 first in an emergency, then tell a marshal.

16. If things go wrong

If you break these terms we will normally have a quiet word first. A repeat, or anything serious, may mean a written warning, being asked to leave that market, or losing future bookings. For serious misconduct we may end your booking immediately.

If you are unhappy with a decision, write to the NCRA market team within 7 days setting out why. The NCRA committee will consider it and reply in writing. Its decision is final.

If you have a complaint about the market, another trader or a volunteer, tell us in writing and we will look into it and come back to you.

17. Your information

We hold the details in your trader account, including your documents, to run the market, keep people safe and contact you about your bookings. We do not sell or pass your details to anyone else, except to the council or emergency services if they need them, or where the law requires. Our privacy notice is on shortstown.co.uk.

18. Changes to these terms

NCRA may update these terms from time to time. We will put the current version on shortstown.co.uk and tell account holders by email. The version on the website on the day of the market is the one that applies.

Market policies

Health and safety policy

NCRA is committed to running a safe market for traders, volunteers, shoppers and the businesses around Beauvais Square. Overall responsibility sits with the NCRA committee. On the day, the market lead and marshals are in charge and their reasonable instructions must be followed.

We keep a written risk assessment for the market and review it after every event and whenever something changes. The main risks are vehicle movements during set up and pack down, gazebos in wind, trip hazards from cables and stock, gas and electrical equipment, and food safety. Our controls are the timings and marshalling in the trader terms, the weighting rule for gazebos, advance approval of generators, PAT tested equipment, covered cables, and the documents traders must upload before trading.

A first aid kit and an accident book are kept at the welcome gazebo. All accidents and near misses are recorded and reviewed by the committee. Anything reportable under RIDDOR is reported.

Volunteers are briefed before each market and wear hi-vis. Nobody is asked to do anything they are not comfortable with.

Food safety policy

Food and drink traders are independent food businesses and are responsible for complying with food law. NCRA's role is to check that they are registered and rated, to make sure allergen information is available, and to give environmental health officers every help.

We ask for each food trader's registration, hygiene rating and allergen approach before their first market and again each year. We will not knowingly allow an unregistered food business to trade.

Traders selling alcohol must hold their own licence or temporary event notice. NCRA does not hold a premises licence for the square.

Adverse weather policy

The market trades in ordinary rain. NCRA will cancel or close the market if wind is forecast or observed at a level that makes gazebos unsafe, if there is lightning, snow or ice on the square, or if the emergency services or the council ask us to.

The decision to cancel is taken by the market lead by 7am on the day using the Met Office forecast for the market hours, with gusts above about 30 mph as the trigger. Traders are told by text and email, and a notice goes on shortstown.co.uk and our social media. Traders are refunded or credited as set out in section 5 of the trader terms.

During the market, the market lead may close early or ask individual gazebos to come down if conditions change. Traders may take their own gazebos down at any time if they judge them unsafe.

Conduct and complaints policy

We expect everyone at the market to be treated with courtesy and respect. Abuse, threats, violence or discrimination are not tolerated from anyone, trader, volunteer or visitor.

Complaints about the market, a trader or a volunteer should be made in writing to the NCRA market team through shortstown.co.uk. We will acknowledge within 5 days, look into it, and reply within 21 days. If the complaint is about a committee member, another committee member will deal with it.

Where a trader has broken the terms, we follow the steps in section 16 of the trader terms. Traders can appeal in writing within 7 days and the committee's decision is final.

Privacy notice for traders

New Cardington Residents Association is the data controller for information held in trader accounts on shortstown.co.uk. We collect your name, business name, contact details, product description, payment records and the documents listed in the trader terms. Card payments are handled by Stripe and booking emails are sent through our email provider; both only process your information on our behalf. If you agree when you book, our emails include a small tracking image so we can see whether they have been opened. You can say no and still book.

We use this information to run the market, allocate pitches, check insurance and food safety compliance, contact you about bookings and cancellations, and keep accident and complaint records. Our lawful basis is the contract between us and, for safety records, our legitimate interest in running a safe event.

We keep trader accounts for as long as you trade with us and for two years after your last booking. Accident records are kept for three years. We share information with the council or emergency services where they need it, and otherwise do not pass it on.

You can ask to see, correct or delete your information at any time by contacting the market team through shortstown.co.uk.

Accessibility and dogs

The square has level access from the car park, the shops and the play area. We keep walkways between stalls clear and at least 2 metres wide so that wheelchairs, mobility scooters and pushchairs can get round. Traders must keep their stock and displays inside their pitch.

Well behaved dogs on leads are welcome. Assistance dogs are welcome everywhere on the market, including at food stalls.

Before your first market

• Trader account created on shortstown.co.uk and pitch paid for
• Public liability insurance certificate uploaded (£5 million for food, drink, rides, children's activities, gas or electrics; £2 million for everything else)
• Food registration, hygiene rating and allergen note uploaded (food and drink traders)
• Gas Safe certificate and extinguisher details uploaded (if cooking with gas)
• PAT certificates uploaded (if using electrical equipment)
• Generator specification uploaded and approval received (if you have asked for one)
• Licence or temporary event notice uploaded (if selling alcohol)
• Gazebo, four leg weights of at least 13kg each, tables, coverings and sides packed
• Price labels, allergen sign, first aid kit, blue plasters and hand sanitiser packed
• Bags for your own waste packed
• Arrive from 8.30am, vehicle off the square by 9.15am, ready to trade at 9.30am