While some members of the local board, predecessor of the urban district council, feared the expense was unjustified, others told of stallholders complaining bitterly that at times it was up to the ankles in sludge.

In fact, the idea was turned down at first. But then, later in that summer of 1888, a year after the market's official opening, the proposal scraped through. The cost: just under £200.

H C Mason thought the very small number of stalls in the market and the income from it did not justify such outlay, especially seeing the rates were so high.

If the paving was done there was some danger of having to take it up again in a short time, said Ezra Wigglesworth, and Stead Senior thought they ought to wait a little longer.

This opposition may have been due in part to personality clashes as the idea's proposer was John George Lister, whose bold style had already alienated some of his colleagues and lit the fuse of some municipal fireworks that would be observed around the country.

Only a little under two years earlier at the board meeting an angry confrontation between Lister and T K Armitage over the positioning of a lamp in the already established new market place brought the exchange of insults.

But what followed received widespread press coverage when the same pair clashed again over another matter which led to Armitage seizing the chairman's hammer and flinging it at Lister, who ducked. Everyone stood in excitement and Armitage started to move towards Lister, but peace was restored.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Armitage supported Lister two years later in the matter of paving the market place. He considered it would be the height of folly not to pave it. Stallholders had complained of the sludge and they might soon spend more in keeping it in a proper state than the paving would cost.

He did not think there was any danger at all of having to take it up again.

As to there being a few stalls, if they could make it more comfortable to stand they would have more stallholders.

This comment would prove prophetic because within the next five years the market would see around 25 stalls and plenty of trade.

In the summer on 1897 a special (Diamond) Jubilee Committee of the now urban district council proposed that four steps leading to a platform to be built in the Market Place – a Lister idea from 1885.