00:00Liverpool council has confirmed St John's market will not reopen to
00:05stallholders. Twelve months on from the shuttering of the hall the left dozens
00:10of traders standing outside the location. The local authority said it will look to
00:15other options for the site that stood vacant ever since.
00:18Councillor Nick Small, cabinet member for growth and economy, has said while he
00:22recognized people would be disappointed over the decision to not to reopen the
00:26market. He said the best days lay ahead for the hall. It's thought following an
00:32options appraisal which began following the closure, two potential uses for the
00:36site have been earmarked for further investigation. The site could become a
00:40training facility to deliver social value projects or a food and drinks hall
00:45similar to that of the Baltic market. The local authority said in 2023 it would
00:49seek to recover three years worth of debt from the traders that occupied the
00:53market. After a breakthrough couldn't be found officers moved to shut down the
00:58site in March 2024. Councillor Small has said that work would now begin in
01:04earnest to pursue those debts around 2.1 million pounds beginning with those who
01:10owe the most. In 2016 two and a half million pounds was spent to renovate the
01:14site but proved unpopular even with then-mayor Joe Anderson who initially
01:19offered traders three then six months free rent as an incentive to stay and
01:24increase footfall. Around a million pounds a year was being spent to
01:28subsidize the market by the City Council. Further investigations by officers found
01:32arrears incurred by dozens of businesses had risen from an initially established
01:371.7 million to 2.1 million pounds.
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