Shrinking to grow? | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

Otara Fleamarket is one of Auckland's busiest and most vibrant; a mash of cultures buying and selling everything from T-shirts to flowers every Saturday.

Hareesh Kika has sold flowers at the market for nearly 18 years.

In recent years, he has seen fewer stallholders come to ply their trade, despite an application to expand the markets by more than 100 extra parking spaces.

Submissions close tomorrow  for consent to continue the market in the Newbury St car park and the Te Puke o Tara Community Hall and expand it to a further 50 outdoor stalls over 117 parking spaces, and a further 63 stalls in the community hall.

The owners of the market - Te Puke o Tara Inc and the Otara branch of the New Zealand Labour Party - must reapply for consent because the original permit ran out in 2002.

Mr Kika says more empty stall spaces will make the market less attractive.

"I can't really see the point. We expect the market to be nice and full and vibrant, and not gaps everywhere."

He also says people may be put off going to the markets. "If parking becomes more difficult, it's less likely to encourage them to come along."

The place was once so busy he would sleep in his car on the Friday night just to get a stall.

"Years ago, rain, hail or snow, there was always a queue of people following the person allocating the stalls. He was like a pied piper."

But now, he says, there are gaps through the market even on fine days.

"Now you can pretty much drive your car through it."

Market manager Rosie Mitchell says the fleamarket is going through a bit of a lull and the extra spaces may not be needed.

"We've got a few more gaps - the stallholders aren't coming in like they used to. We're
wondering if we need the extra room," she says, adding that there used to be stalls on the lawn near the hall, but Manukau City Council stopped this.

When the market organisers re-applied for resource consent, they included a request to increase the number of car park spaces to make up for those lost on the grass.

"It's reduced the number of car parks for the public. We've lost the car parks for the visitors."

Te Puke o Tara Community Centre manager Mary Gush blames the recession for a drop-off in customers and stallholders.

"Basically, what happened is they expanded the market and it didn't work. It's taken away a whole row of parking.

"Really, I think they need to lose the lane again and give it back to parking."

Mrs Gush says the centre benefits from stallholder fees with these funds going back into the community through free programmes run through the centre.

Planner John Ferguson, who is overseeing the consent application, says before the original consent was granted in the late 1990s, the market was described as a "free for all".

Mr Ferguson says no one at the council or on the Otara Fleamarket committee noticed when the 2002 consent ran out and the market has run on an ad hoc basis since then.

Market growth

The fleamarket opened in Te Puke o Tara Community Centre around 1976 to raise money for the community centre and the New Zealand Labour Party. It grew and grew, and spread into the car park off Newbury St.

Between 1978 and 1990, the market expanded to cover about half the car park.

Originally it sold mainly fruit and vegetables, but now has a wide range of items, from clothing to electronics.