Birmingham's indoor market faces demolition after appeal

Local TV

Outline approval after appeal clears the way to demolish Birmingham’s indoor market. We speak to people outside the site about jobs, value, and what must be guaranteed before a rebuild. Housing numbers grab headlines. The ground-floor reality will decide who the city centre is for.

Transcript

00:00This place isn't a museum piece, it's fresh meat, fish, fabric, phone repairs, cash in

00:05hand graft and regulars who keep the lights on.

00:08The promise is simple on paper, demolished here, re-housed within the wider Smithfield

00:13plan, then built homes or student blocks above new ground floor space.

00:18The risk is just as simple, demolition lands on time, the replacement doesn't.

00:23Traders can't trade off a press release, if there's a gap, you don't just lose stalls,

00:28you lose footfall for nearby jobs, entry level jobs and a price point many families rely on.

00:34The city centre says it wants life after five, markets do that in daylight first.

00:39If this goes on, what's the bridge between old and new and who carries the cost while the

00:43bridge is built?

00:45I think it will lose a major part of our community, there's such history to this market.

00:51So it's an avenue for people who are in different socio-economic parts of the scale, to come

00:59to a place where you can get things which are good value but also really fresh.

01:04Also when you go in there you get a real sense of the community of Birmingham and I think

01:08if we just end up deferring to big business then we're losing something really precious

01:14in the city.

01:15The sense of community, the culture and the diversity.

01:22You can't get that in the Bullring, it's all chain stores but this is something totally

01:27different.

01:28I'm 74 and as long as I can remember, Birmingham has been famous for its markets, indoor, outdoor,

01:34so if we lose one of them, I don't think the Bullring would be the same.

01:39We're told the new plan could mean roughly 700 homes or around 1,500 student rooms or

01:45a mix.

01:46Fine housing matters but the ground floor matters too.

01:50If it becomes polished units with premium rents, you get tidy shop fronts and empty tills.

01:56If it stays affordable, you keep the noise, the bargaining, the mix of accents and smells

02:00that make a city feel lived in rather than queue-righted.

02:03This comes down to conditions, feesing and rent levels, not glossy CGI's.

02:08Riders need certainty on where they go, on what terms and when they can move back if that's

02:12on offer.

02:13The rest of us need to know whether daily essentials remain within reach or drift to the edge of

02:18town.

02:20Well, I think what's really necessary is to plan a replacement before destroying a building.

02:26Because what is it going to be?

02:28It's going to be an area that's going to be empty.

02:32Where are the people going to do their groceries?

02:34Where are the people going to do the market?

02:36If you don't have a replacement, it's really pointless to destroy it.

02:39I think making sure they've got somewhere to go, so a like-for-like place before they

02:44go.

02:45So they're not out of business.

02:46They can carry on.

02:47Why the new is being built.

02:49Protection of the traders, but also what the plan is for the future.

02:53What are they going to do with the market?

02:55Is there going to be a new market?

02:56What's the time frame for there being a new market?

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