St John's Market: Liverpool traders say closure is 'unlawful'

Traders have previously claimed they cannot afford the rent demanded by the council

Traders who were suddenly forced to vacate a market have said they will launch legal action over the closure.

Liverpool City Council said it was left with "no option" but to shut St John's Market on Monday over rent arrears.

However, traders, who said they thought negotiations were ongoing, claimed the council had not upheld its "obligations as a landlord".

The council told the BBC it had not received any formal response from solicitors representing traders.

The local authority said it was owed £1.7m in unpaid rent and service charges from 43 tenancies.

Colin Laphan, chairman of St John's Market Traders Association, said the market, first set up in 1822, had struggled since a controversial £2.5m refurbishment in 2016.

'Absolute disgrace'

He described broken toilets, lifts and escalators and a dramatic reduction in footfall.

Issues caused by the refurbishment led former city mayor Joe Anderson to agree to waive rent for a few years.

Mr Laphan, told BBC Radio Merseyside solicitors representing the traders "were as surprised as we were" by the sudden closure and believed it represented an "unlawful act".

He said: "The council had obligations as a landlord, which they haven't complied with since 2017 by their own words which they put into council minutes that the design was completely flawed, and that they are going to make serious changes and do a number of things.

"They have not done any of those things. So that's the breach of covenants."

Traders said they were in "complete and utter shock" at the news of the market's closure

Mr Laphan rejected suggestions the traders were asking to be "subsidised" by the council, at a time when cuts were being made from the authority's budget.

He said: "We have always paid rent, and it is an absolute disgrace that we have been accused in that way of being freeloaders.

"We were put in a position in 2017 where people didn't have access to our businesses, we work and operate whether we like it or not at 30 degrees every day because there's no air-conditioning, there's no air-moving system.

"The conditions we've operated in are horrendous."

He said the association was formed to act "like a union" and protect members from the "atrocious things that were happening to us on a weekly basis".

Mr Laphan said the traders had wanted to pay rent, but were aiming to negotiate a rate which reflected the large reduction in footfall.

The entrance to St John's Market is now boarded up

Legal letters were sent to tenants in October demanding they pay three years worth of rent and other arrears, which they told the BBC they could not afford to pay.

The council said the market costs £1m a year to subsidise, making it "unviable".

A 2022 council report, the Future of Markets, said St John's was now "largely vacant with low footfall, despite the area around continuing to thrive".

It added that there was "poor signage and advertising" and the 2016 refurbishment had "not worked as hoped".

The council said it would now "review all feasible options" for the site and remained committed to a "sustainable future".