I'm genuinely surprised the Makers Market in Knutsford is still trundling along.

By all accounts, there is no shortage of people willing to rock up to Knutsford on a Sunday morning once a month to put their hands in their pockets for artisan bread, hand-raised pies and farmhouse gin.

(Have you ever noticed that the minute something is described as 'artisan' or 'craft' or 'locally-produced' how much the price goes up?)

Anyway, I digress.

Not everyone in Knutsford is happy with the market. Some residents have been kicking up a fuss because 12 times a year, their Sunday morning lie-ins are shattered by the noise of stallholders setting up.

The residents also complain (probably with some justification) that if they don't manage to move their cars before the market, they in effect become prisoners in their own homes until later in the afternoon when the market finally clears away.

And they have also cited health and safety issues, saying emergency services vehicles would not be able to navigate their way through the town centre when the market is on – which also sounds like a fair point.

But what surprises me is that the town council and the organisers of the market have stood firm.

Let's face it, Knutsford has a history of a small, vocal and well organised group getting their own way.

Just ask the organisers of the Pub in the Park.

I'll be genuinely interested to see how this one plays out because history also dictates that Knutsford protest groups don't just give up at the first obstacle.

  • Apropos of nothing in particular, I happened to be at the Makers Market in Didsbury on Sunday when two beautifully turned out 20-something women were walking past one of the stalls.

You have to put this in the context of how yuppie and up-market the south Manchester glitterati think they are when one of the women turned to her friend and uttered the immortal words: "Oh look at those arancini – aren't they divine."

It was beyond parody.