Huddersfield’s MP has demanded action over Queensgate Market’s broken heating.

Barry Sheerman described being in the indoor market as being akin to ‘shopping in a fridge’ and damned owners Kirklees Council for its sluggishness to address the problem, which has being ongoing for months.

Stallholders working in the market have had to work in temperatures as low as 8c, way below the lower limit set by the government’s Health and Safety Executive.

Mr Sheerman visited the town centre site and met with customers and workers now campaigning for the council to promptly resolve the issue.

He said: “It’s simply just not good at all. It’s colder inside than out and I feel for the poor people serving and trying to shop there.

“People do not want to shop in what can only be described as a refrigerator.”

Millie Julien of Colin Whittakers, told how she has had to wear a hat for days

A total of more than 400 signatures have been collected in two weeks to highlight the need for repairs.

An Examiner poll asking if the Market was too cold revealed that more than three quarters of people thought it was:

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Do you think Queensgate Market is too cold?

However, as previously reported in Huddersfield Examiner, a Kirklees Council spokeswoman said that traders must be prepared to foot the bill and insisted that it had no legal obligation to provide a specific level of heating.

She also said that a proper long term solution would require ‘significant investment’.

Mr Sheerman, said: “It’s clear that it is their responsibility to do something about it as quick as they can as they are the market’s owner.

“And given this fact, I think that they should be the ones who pay for the improvements needed.

“They need to find out what the costs will be to repair it, make that known and then start work to fix it.

“I’ve made initial inquiries with the council and will push for answers so that something can be done about it.”

He also spoke out about stall holders’ allegations that the council’s market manager had warned stall holders not to display the petitions created by customer Jean Goodison to other shoppers.

Mr Sheerman, said: “If it’s true that the stall holders are not allowed to display the petitions that is very wrong.

“No council employee should be able to dictate when and when not they can protest, they simply don’t have that right.”

Campaigner Jean plans to continue collecting petitions and take the signatory list to Kirklees cabinet meeting on February 10.

She said: “I’ve talked to the stall holders and know that there is a lot of support for the campaign.

“I hope that the council will finally sit up and listen to us.”