Commissioners to meet traders over Victoria Centre Market future

Traders were told last year the site was due to be closed in the summer

Commissioners in charge of Nottingham City Council are planning to meet stallholders at a city centre market to discuss its future.

The council announced in 2022 it was looking at ending the lease on Victoria Centre Market to save £39m over the remaining 50 years of its term.

Traders were told the authority had decided to end the lease by the summer.

Commissioners appointed to run the council in February said they were interested in meeting them.

Stephen Taylor (centre, with fellow trader Nick Clark and Sharon Manning) criticised Nottingham City Council

The city council, which declared itself effectively bankrupt on 29 November by issuing a section 114 notice, confirmed the following month the market would close in the summer, and no new stalls would open before then.

A spokesman for the commissioners told the Local Democracy Reporting Service reintroducing monthly meetings between the council and traders "is a positive step".

"Commissioners are interested in attending one of these meetings and have asked the markets team to make arrangements for this at the appropriate time," they said.

Stephen Taylor, who runs Aladdin's Cave, said recent events showed the council "has not got a clue what it is doing".

"We are earning a living," he added.

"There are viable businesses here, businesses making money, they are employing people here.

"It is something every city should have, and if it is well run, it can be a massive bonus to the city."

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