Market dispute erupts

LAPSED-LICENCE vendors are being branded “hawkers” in Almeria.

Market traders who have not kept up to date with their licence fees are being barred from the popular outdoor market in the city centre.

The city council is in dispute with FECOAM, the street trader’s federation of Almeria, which has allegedly supported those members with lapsed licences by circulating a leaflet claiming discrimination.

But a spokesman for more than 300 of the 367 stallholders who have already paid, claims that FECOAM should be supporting the legitimate traders’ interests rather than the 50 or so who “refuse to pay and have no intention to ever do so