People’s Market: ‘Traders have made their own decisions about relocation or retirement’ say Council

Wrexham Council have responded to queries over the closure of the People’s Market, saying Traders have made their own decisions about relocation or retirement and the new way of working will mean the arts hub construction is quicker.

Following on from the Town Centre Forum meeting last night where it was revealed that the Peoples Market was to close we asked Wrexham Council this morning several related questions.

These included enquiring at what point in the last 4 weeks the decision was made that the market hall will close, who made that decision, and why the 6 month notice period with traders was cited as notification of the move, when at the time WCBC clearly stated it was not related to leaving / ceasing leases.

Last night saw a heated dispute over a claimed ‘consultation’ with traders last Thursday and Council staff, so we asked for a copy of the options presented to traders, and detail of the consulting method.

Wrexham Council have sent us the following statement in response, copied in full below:

“As the start of works on this multi million pound investment project draws closer, final plans for the location of the market hall traders have been revisited and revised due to the number of tenants who indicated they wished to remain with the project and become part of the Arts and Cultural Hub.

“In addition, during the detailed design period of work on the People’s Market, it became clear that the mechanical and engineering services would need to be upgraded and changed during refurbishment, in order to make the hall as efficient as possible and to bring it up to current standards.

“For this work to be carried out, traders would have to be moved a number of times which would cause significantly more disruption than expected with new power and water supplies needed.

“Therefore, the option was given to traders to relocate to another of the council’s market halls, which would already be full and therefore attract better footfall.

“Traders have made their own decisions about relocation or retirement and the reduced numbers remaining meant that serious consideration had to be made to relocating to another market. This would also reduce the construction time of the whole project. During November all traders were invited to discuss the proposals. Meetings then took place with individual traders to discuss their particular business requirements.

“During this time officers worked very hard to accommodate the wishes of traders who are an integral part of the whole project as it moves forward.

“Had the numbers of traders wishing to remain in the People’s Market during the construction phase been more, then the original plans would have remained unchanged

“Legally, notice had to be served on traders six months before they would be relocated to different stalls, whether that was in the market hall or elsewhere because their agreement with the Council is for tenancy on a particular stall.

“It has been difficult to publicly discuss any further proposals about our tenants in the people’s market due to the ongoing and individual nature of the plans and the confidential nature of these discussions. We recognise this may have caused some frustration to others however, our intentions are and will remain for a smooth transition for those tenants affected. We will stay in regular contact with traders throughout the project.

“The changes will come into effect in January and trade will continue at the People’s Market over the busy Christmas period.”

We also requested to be copied into any signposting / information on continuity of trade as we will do our best to promote and point existing customers to new trading locations – we will publish that as and when we get details of it.