Traders at Nottingham's Victoria Centre Market feel the historic site is getting "near the end" and believe the coming year will be its last. Businesses at the market, which has operated since 1971, believe the council will close the market as planned at the end of March 2025 despite several previous closure dates having come and gone.
The city council said negotiations with Global Mutual had been "both complex and protracted" and that talks would continue over the termination of the lease agreement, which the council says would have cost it £39 million over the next 50 years. The Labour-led authority's most recent closure plan was for traders to leave the site this summer, which once again came and went.
The business owner said: "We started in that market and it was so important for us to be able to start in a place like that. You get a month by month agreement, you don't have to pay an expensive deposit and it's a great location in the Victoria Centre. Mr Clark says he also understands the market will close at the end of March, but has not yet been given detail on how it will work. The business owner added: "I've got a lease there, you can't just chuck me out willy-nilly, they've got to do things correctly."