Steve Pilling responds to our petition in an article in Manchester Confidential

In Manchester Confidential, Steve Pilling has responded to our request for greater transparency into the deal between himself and Stockport Council for The Produce Hall. Speaking about the petition, Steve Pilling said “The irony is that [Foodie Friday] are burning their bridges. If they’d have been more open minded, we would have liked to work together, but they’ve made a tactical mistake running around accusing people of corruption and malpractice, which is unbelievable really." For the record, we've never accused Steve Pilling of corruption or malpractice, we have simply challenged Stockport Council on their ability to run a process which is fair, equal and transparent. Speaking about this to Manchester Confidential, Joe Barratt from the Foodie Friday team said, "We feel that it wasn't the professional procurement process that we were promised." "The Produce Hall has been a market for over 150 years, it's a public building so all bidders must be treated equally and deserve a greater degree of transparency." "The council obviously went to visit Steve Pilling's businesses, but they then rejected our invitation to visit Foodie Friday in a professional capacity and meet our delivery partners." "The crux of it is that we still haven't had any feedback about our application, including how we actually scored against the other bidders, which we were promised." "We put a lot of time and effort into crafting a financially robust business case, so it's really disappointing that the process hasn't been fair, equal and transparent." You can read the full article, including about how Steve Pilling plans to give work experience to teenagers and support wounded veterans in The Produce Hall, here: https://confidentials.com/manchester/stockports-new-produce-hall-where-is-it-up-to