Market traders brand council a ‘joke’ over state of building
TRADERS at the Victoria Centre Market have branded the current state of the venue a “joke” after a burst pump caused water to flood through the ceiling.
Leaks are said to have started on Friday (March 8) and the issue will reportedly take four weeks to fix, with some entrances to the market shut off in the meantime.
It comes as uncertainty continues about the historic site’s future. Although Nottingham City Council still says it intends to close the market this summer, no detail on how this will be achieved has been given.
One trader is so unconvinced that the council will manage to close the market in time that he has already bought this year’s Christmas tree for his shop. Many businesses are already out of pocket after the city council first said it would surrender its lease on the site, which opened in 1971.
Traders were told the lease surrender would take place on February 24 in 2022, with some having signed compensation offers and arranged new premises to move into. This date came and went with no further certainty and it was eventually confirmed that negotiations had fallen through with Global Mutual, the asset managers of the Victoria Market.
Traders remained in a state of limbo until a meeting called on December 11 last year saw Nottingham City Council say that it wanted to close the market this summer. The council said negotiations with Global Mutual had been “both complex and protracted” and that talks would continue over the termination of the lease agreement, which the council says would have cost it £39 million over the next 50 years.
With no detail having been given since then, the city council said it would begin holding monthly meetings with the traders. The first was held on Tuesday (March 12).
Nick Clark, who runs Cobblers and Keys, said of the meeting: “It’s not so much that we’re back at square one, it felt like we were at minus 10. They said they were going to meet with the commissioners to ask them what to do about the market, and that they want to get back into negotiations with Global Mutual.
“I said to them ‘do me a favour, only call one of these meetings when you’ve actually got something to say, because this is just a waste of everyone’s time’.” Carole Lilley, who has been trading at the market for nearly 40 years and who currently runs ‘Carole’s’, an underwear stall, is one of the businesses most affected by the current water leak.
The stallholder said: “It’s just a joke. I’ve just come back from a week’s holiday because I can’t bear it here, I’ve got no customers passing me. There’s now no fruit and veg stall, no fish, no flowers - there’s nothing left.”
A Nottingham City Council spokesperson said: “This was the first in a series of regular meetings that we’ve set up with trader representatives to keep them informed of developments as we look to close later this year. Until then, the market remains open and people can continue using the facility and supporting the traders.
“The aim of the meetings was to establish a two-way dialogue which also allows stallholders to raise any issues for us to help with.
“Tuesday’s meeting was positive and traders asked a number of questions, many of which we answered but we’ve taken some away and will come back to the next meeting with further details.
“One of the issues raised related to a leak in the shopping centre which is affecting the market. This is being urgently looked into and we hope to have an update for stallholders soon.
“We were also asked about the current role of commissioners at the council and we’ve explained that they will likely want to discuss the market situation with officers in due course. Again, we will keep traders updated on that through the new monthly meetings.”
The next meeting with traders is scheduled for March 26. Some traders recently wrote to Tony Mcardle, Nottingham City Council’s lead commissioner, about their situation.
Mr Mcardle said: “The traders have made an invitation and I’m sure we’ll be wanting to take that up as soon as possible, but it will be part of our learning about what’s going on here rather than us saying ‘right, we’re making decisions’. That stays for now with the council and hopefully for good.
“At the end of this, we have to leave and this authority has to be run by its own elected members under their full autonomy again.”