CHRISTMAS Market traders have slated the event’s organisers for offering “grossly unfair” last minute discounts to fill chalet spaces.

Salisbury Business Improvement District (BID), who organise the market, advertise an “early-bird” offer of £20 off per day (usually £120 a day) meaning early bookers can save between £220 and £600 - a total saving of just over 15 per cent.

But some traders have voiced concerns that, despite paying for the early offer, “cut price deals” of up to 50 per cent are being offered to traders at the last minute to fill empty spaces.

Jim Manchester, who held a stall at Salisbury Christmas Market for three years said he stopped attending as “business was not good enough to justify the time commitment”.

But he said while exhibiting at Rockbourne Fair last year, held a month before the Christmas market was due to start, he was approached and offered “a very large discount” for a chalet. And this year he was emailed on October 6 offering a 40 per cent discount for a last minute chalet.

“Regular traders are not being offered these discounts, which seems grossly unfair treatment for their loyalty to the event,” he said.

Another trader, who preferred not be named, said she had paid more than £3,500 using the early-bird discount, but has been made aware that others have now been offered 50 per cent off, or have been paying “10 per cent of their profits” rather than a fixed rate.

“They think nobody talks to each other, but the traders do, so everybody finds out [how much they have paid],” she said. “The whole ethos has gone out the window.”

Jim said he also believed the last minute price cuts would “encourage a poorer quality of business or stand, which will downgrade the event”, adding: “I believe this is happening, which showed when I visited the market last year.”

The other trader agreed, adding that last year some chalets had not decorated or installed correct lighting, and one hut contained nothing but a clothes rail, while another selling alcohol only had a plastic table outside and boxes stacked inside.

“From the customers’ point of view they have always liked it but if they come round and the chalets are full of tat then it’s just dragging the standards down,” she said.

Other concerns raised included that organisers did not have a strong presence at the event, stewards were “barely seen” and, despite hiring security, stock was stolen or damaged overnight.

Salisbury BID would not comment on the claims that the discounts were unfair, or that the standard of the market would be lowered as a result, but asked the Journal to report the market “in a positive light”.