Traders' fury as plans to demolish Coventry Market are axed

[dutchman]

Coventry's iconic round market will definitely stay put after council bosses abandoned plans to demolish the listed building.



Council bosses confirmed they are pressing ahead with a planning application for a £1billion city centre transformation – on the basis the market stays put.

The move has been slammed by traders who claim they have been left in a “no man’s land” of premises which are no longer fit for purpose.

Traders also revealed another suggestion of moving the market into the flagging Cathedral Lanes shopping centre was recently dismissed.

The decision comes a year after the coalition government rejected the traders’ formal appeal against the former Labour government’s Grade II listing of the 1958 circular market as a building of “historic and architectural national importance”.

The government backing for English Heritage’s recommendations appeared to scupper Coventry City Council plans to bulldoze the giant post-war structure in favour of a new purpose-built circular market building close by, as part of the £1billion city centre redevelopment.

Council development bosses last year vowed to examine putting to government and English Heritage a case for demolition – on the grounds the building was no longer viable for any purpose.

But Richard Moon, the council’s senior development executive, said: “We’re working on a planning application for early next year which will look to improve the area around the market, rather than to demolish it.

“We’ve got a really good market which will generate footfall and we will encourage the market in its current location.”

But the Coventry Market Traders’ Federation says the 60,000 sq ft building is no longer fit for purpose, has problems with a patched-up roof and heating, and is hidden from view – while still attracting nearly four million visitors last year.

Market traders’ federation chairman Peter Donnelly said: “We’ve now lurched towards a situation whereby everybody’s just given up and everybody’s saying we’ll just make the best of what we’ve got. We’ve been left in no man’s land.

“The market is a success in spite of the council and landlords [Royal London], not because of them.

"There seems to be a hidden agenda that we have to stay here to attract people into this half of the redeveloped city centre.

"The landlords are not willing to spend a penny on it.”

Market trader Bill Duffin revealed the federation had suggested earlier this year a move into the near empty Cathedral Lanes shopping centre at Broadgate, which had been up for sale, and was bought by property firm Hammerson.

But he said council development bosses ruled it out, saying there would be no alternative use for the market building.

The council is also seeking to spruce up derelict land outside the market opposite Ikea in Corporation Street, where the fish market used to stand.

It would become a “pocket park” as part of a £7million redevelopment of parts of the city centre, including Broadgate, in time for Olympic year next year.