St Johns Market Hall has been closed with immediate effect. Liverpool City Council say they're owed more than £1.7m of unpaid rent and service charges. One of Britain's oldest indoor markets dating back to 1822, it was taken over by the local authority in 2016.
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00:00 St John's market has closed for the foreseeable future.
00:05 One of Britain's oldest indoor markets dating back to 1822.
00:09 Liverpool City Council has been running all day-to-day market operations since 2016.
00:14 The businesses within the market owed the council more than £1.7 million in rent and service charges dating back to August 2020.
00:23 Local authority says all of the businesses will be invited to arrange a date and time to collect any stock left within the stall they operated from.
00:32 We have been to get your reaction on the immediate closure of the market.
00:38 I'm just, I'm so shocked about that. I don't stay in touch with the news as much as I should locally.
00:44 But I thought I would have seen that. I've not seen much about it on social media.
00:48 But I think that's really sad. I remember going there from when I was very little.
00:53 There was something for everyone in there. Lots of different characters, people to talk to.
00:59 Quite a safe, nice area. So it's very sad to hear it's gone.
01:03 To close it down just without anyone knowing until today, I think it's terrible.
01:10 Because there's no work for anybody here now, anywhere.
01:14 If they wanted to do this all the time, lots of them here have been here years.
01:19 Well, the only part of it I use is the food side, you know, the butchers and things like that.
01:25 But it's bad. You know, it's, it's, people's got less and less choice all the time, haven't they?
01:30 Terrible. I mean, they should have really told us all what was going to happen.
01:37 Because I was only here the other day and nothing was mentioned in the market about it being closed down
01:43 until I found out now, just about an hour ago.
01:48 I've been waiting to see a friend of mine who was supposed to do some posters work for me.
01:55 Now I have to wait until he phones me.
01:58 The minute you tidy something up, you lose part of your custom.
02:01 Because people like to go to scruffy old markets, even if the prices aren't scruffy.
02:05 I mean, the old markets, it was a bit of a shambles.
02:09 OK, I agree with that. But so what?
02:12 The market now costs the council more than £1 million a year to operate,
02:16 which they say is not sustainable,
02:18 giving the unprecedented pressures on the council's budget to support key services.
02:24 Former Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has apologised for the £2.5 million revamp of the market in 2016,
02:32 of which he says the wrong decisions were made.
02:35 Taking to ex-formerly Twitter, Mr Anderson, who was mayor at the time of the refurbishment,
02:40 has said the local authority can't keep throwing money at it.
02:45 The council, which has 63 years left on its lease, says it will now review all feasible options.
02:53 The closure of the market hall does not impact on St John's shopping centre,
02:58 which remains fully open for business and is unaffected by this action.