Yet another Sunday goes by and no car boot sale and yet again cars and vans are queuing up and it is called off at the last minute, if you are a regular you know that when it was on the "donut" in the town centre it was run very well by two people and it was always on and it was extremely rare for it to be called off. It is by popular consensus the most badly run car boot sale within a one hundred mile radius of Chesterfield (only because we don’t know of any further away).
Since it was moved to the football ground car park as a joint venture between the council and the club both buyers and sellers have not known whether it would be running or not, it was clear from the moment it was moved to the football ground car park that the stewards running it were neither experienced enough or committed to its continuation, as i was told by one of the senior stewards after i told him they should move it back to the donut he said he wished they would.
I myself have known them shut the car boot down because of "bad weather" and marsh lane which does not have hard standing and is privately run has been open, the reason for not running it this week was because there was only twenty three vehicles about a third being vans, now let’s have a look at why there was only this number of vehicles, I myself know of five regular stall holders who now prefer to go to Doncaster or Bawtry and i have witnessed cars driving off after sellers getting frustrated at the wait to find out whether it is going to be run or not, in numerous cases people have been kept waiting for over two hours only to be told at the last minute it is cancelled, imagine you turned up to Tesco or Asda waiting for it to open only to be told after two hours we are not opening today as advertised as we don’t have enough customers waiting to get in.
All this and a car boot sale which used to be run by two people now needs an army of stewards who are still incapable of running it properly or it seems with some but not all of the stewards communicating with the people who do come in a polite and civil manner.
This local amenity is not just a car boot it is also a place of local interaction where people meet and discuss local issues and the one topic that crops up weekly is will it be on or if it is on how come there is more cars than last week which ran and this week it is cancelled.
I must confess i do not know where this thirty vehicle rule came from i think they just made it up, on one occasion there were twenty seven vehicles and all the prospective stall holders got together and agreed to pay for the missing three vehicles just so they were able to stand and still these apathetic stewards cancelled it.
Also i find it irksome that if the carbooters are ten percent down it is cancelled and yet at the recent Bedford game the ground capacity was down by over three quarters to a little over two thousand attendees and yet went ahead, i also drove by on Saturday and the lights were on and there were spectators and it was lashing it down with rain, in the past the boot sale has been cancelled due to forecasts of light drizzle.
As I understand it the club has abrogated its responsibility to the community and has given the council an ultimatum that it will not run it after July, it is to be hoped the Council can find a new venue, and a couple of people who can and will run it properly for the people of chesterfield who the football club have turned their back on.