The freezer stalls

THERE’S no escape from the Arctic conditions for one group of workers: traders on Tommyfield market. For Wahid Khan, pictured, the predicted rise in temperature on Thursday can’t come quickly enough as he battles to keep his fruit and veg from freezing.

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STALWART Tommyfield market traders are hoping Thursday’s forecast of milder weather will arrive on schedule, after days of battling against sub-zero temperatures.

Fruit and vegetable stallholder Wahid Khan says much of his fruit and vegetables freezes solid within an hour of being put on the stall.

Yesterday he wore six layers on his body, two pairs of long-johns, three pairs of socks, two pairs of gloves, heavy hiking boots and a big woolly hat in a desperate attempt to stay warm as he spent around eight Arctic hours on his stall.

But still he struggled to keep out the cold. “It’s your feet that get really cold,” he said.

Wahid described the long cold snap as a triple whammy. “It’s too cold to put the produce out, it’s too cold for customers to come out, and it’s too cold for us to stand around,” he said.

“We are having to throw a lot of our exotic produce away at the end of each day. It comes from all over the world and is too delicate and fragile for this weather.

“It’s costing us a lot of money, and it’s difficult to make ends meet,” he said.

Wahid’s stall has been on Tommyfield Market for around 20 years, and he said this year’s cold snap was only beaten last year.

“It is very, very difficult. A lot of the customers we rely on are elderly, and they just don’t come out in the snow and when its very cold,” he said.

Mary Eleftheriou, from Mary’s Bedding & Towels, applauded the efforts of market manager Sharon Hibbert, who she said had worked flat out to make sure the market continued to run smoothly.

She said: “We are having a bad winter and there’s nothing we can do about that, but the snow and ice have been cleared and the ground is gritted so the traders and the customers can walk around.”

Mary has been standing Tommyfield Market for 33 years, and said: “It may be cold, but we still offer the personal service and have a laugh and a joke with the customers.”




Residents from Uppermill have praised the Community Payback scheme for helping them get to the shops when they were trapped by snow and ice.



Old people living in Riverside House sheltered housing, and other residents of Kenworthy Gardens could not get to the shops all last week because of the treacherous state of local roads and pavements.

But when Beryl Seville (69) read in her Chronicle how the Community Payback scheme was being used to clear Oldham town centre pavements, she spotted a lifeline. The service sent a supervisor and then a team. Beryl said: “There were eight young men and they have done a marvellous job.”