Council fails to sell market to traders

Sheffield’s new market is under construction in The Moor shopping area, on the other side of the city to the existing Castle Market complex which is earmarked for demolition and redevelopment.

Market officers yesterday admitted only 26 of 108 traders currently operating at the Castle Market site had applied to move to the new venue, with many citing concerns over rents.

Sheffield Council hopes the market will open at the end of the year, and said it was a major plank of regeneration plans.

Officers have said that the rents, which range in price from £7,800 to £28,000 a year when including all service charges, reflect the prime location the market will command in the city.

Plans for the market show that there will be 195 stalls, but traders said the costs will be significantly higher than those they currently pay for their existing pitches.

One trader, David Burns, who runs a fruit and vegetable stall on Castle Market said he would not be moving and added: “The amount of room I occupy now I pay approximately £850 per calendar month.”

“For me to run that operation down in the bottom of the Moor it would cost me three times more – £2,500 to £3,000 per month.