Letter addressed to Paul Stuart Leader of Wirral Council about Mick Whitleys concerns over a proposed move to Argos. 

 

Cc: Paul Satoor, Tony Jones, Birkenhead Market Traders’ Association

22 March 2024

Dear Paul,

 

Thank you for supplying me with the documents regarding the plans for Birkenhead Market.

 

As I am sure you understand it is my responsibility to respond with my constituents’ interests and the interest of the town I represent as MP front and centre. Indeed,several traders and representatives of the Birkenhead Market Traders’ Association (BMTA) have approached me to respond to the Council and its proposals on their behalf.

 

I have been involved in plans for the new market and its impact on the current traders for several years. Me and my team have attended countless meetings with the traders themselves, representatives of the Council and Council officials. My role has always been constructive. A member of my team played a key mediating role during an exceedingly difficult period of negotiations over a temporary alternative for the traders until a new market was built. I myself played a supporting role in helping the Council win its bid for the Future High Streets funding that was to be used to build the new market.

 

The many hours of meetings and the follow up work to those meetings was premised on the understanding that a new market would be built, that it would be in the main shopping area of the town and that it would be a centrepiece for the regeneration of my town. It was also premised on my standpoint, which has been constant throughout, that the needs of the traders would be paramount and that decisions would be taken in full consultation with them. At a meeting at the Lauries some time ago I secured the traders a place at the decision-making table. And progress resulted in agreements for a temporary solution and the eventual presentation of detailed plans for a new market to a very enthusiastic group of traders. There was a renewed optimism as these advances were made. Unfortunately, this mood was not translated into action and over time everything seemed to come to a halt. Attention shifted to the future of the Pyramids rather than the future of the Birkenhead Market.

 

We were initially told there were no plans to kill off the new market project following the Council’s purchase of the Pyramids but rumours began to circulate that the new market project was no more and eventually at a meeting you and others held with me and my team in early December last year we were given the grim news that after almost three years in the making the funds were no longer available to build a new market. A total of £27 million had originally been earmarked for the new market. The current cost was projected to be £31.6 million, and the Council did not have the money to cover that increase. This was a bitter blow and in my opinion was a retreat from the ambitious programme of Regeneration which the new market had previously been an integral part of.

 

The rumours had also hinted that the “new” market was now to be housed in a re-purposed Argos. With the publication of the assorted options outlined in the documents you kindly forwarded it to me, it would appear that these rumours were also true, or at the very least it was the option most favoured by the Council officials and is recommended in the summary report you sent over.

 

First, like the traders themselves, I want to express my profound disappointment at the decision not to build a new market on the old House of Fraser site. The lengthy delays in actioning the original proposal for such a project and now the abandonment of the proposal on grounds of cost should be recognised for what they are – a dramatic setback for the regeneration of my town. I believe there needs to be a serious review of why the project was allowed to drift to the point where the Council decided it is now unaffordable. An honest accounting of when decisions to deliberately stall the market project were made and implemented needs to be provided to the people of Birkenhead.

 

I also believe that the funding that was originally allocated to the project needs to be fully accounted foras the costs of the proposed relocation of the market are less than the original grant awarded.

 

Second, I need to relay to you the continuing dissatisfaction of the traders. They have contacted me to complain about:

 

a) the proposed location of the new market
b) the consultation process that has taken place.
 

On location the traders feel that a move into Argos will be disastrous for their businesses. They reject the arguments advanced in the summary report (proximity to bus station, car park etc.) and point to the fact that the site will be out of the way of the main shopping thoroughfare in town, will be too small to attract new businesses to the site and will be unsuitable for several of the businesses that operate in the current Market.

 

I share these concerns and am worried that – as with the failure of St John’s Market in Liverpool – this relegation of the market will threaten existing businesses and the livelihoods of the people they employ.

 

The report suggests that the Argos proposal is the only one that can be completed in the time limit set by the existing government for the spending of the available funds. While this may be the case the reality is that there will be a new government by the time that deadline comes around and that new government is highly likelyto be considerably more sympathetic to the management of existing finances by councils engaged in meaningful regeneration projects. This political reality counts for far more weight in deciding the future of the Market than the time limits set by the current government.

 

That is why I would support the traders’ requests to delay a hurried and potentially damaging move into the out of the way Argos site and keep alive options for a more suitable long-term solution to the issue of choosing the best site for a new Market. I would also argue that the full award from the Future High Street Fund be ring fenced to cover the costs of exploring and developing more suitable locations that could rescue the future of the Market as a centrepiece of town centre regeneration.

 

With regards to the consultation process, the representatives of the BMTA who contacted meexplained that while meetings have taken place their concerns are not being listened to. At the most recent meeting there were Council Officers, James Quigley representing a company called Market Asset Management Ltd and three representatives of the BMTA.

 

At the meeting, the traders were concerned that there was no involvement from or representation of the people of the Wirral, and Birkenhead in particular, who had the interests of the town and its Market as their first priority. That is, there was no involvement from elected representatives who are accountable to local people. As a result, the traders’ felt that Argos was a done deal, and the purpose of the meeting was to shoot down any alternatives they may have felt offered a more secure future for the Market and their businesses.

 

They added that it was their belief that while Green, Conservative and Lib Dem councillors had engaged with them directly the Labour Group had avoided any direct communication with them. Whether or not that is is your view of the way things have been I obviously cannot say one way or the other. But as the traders have raised it with me as a concern it is my responsibility to make you aware of how they feel and see things.

 

Throughout this entire process my mantra has always been that with either the original proposal for a temporary market while a new one was built or a new location for the future if a new market is not going to be built, it is essential that decisions are taken in conjunction with the traders and their representatives.

 

Birkenhead is traditionally a market town. Birkenhead Market was a destination that people from all over Merseyside and Cheshire visited. It brought vibrancy, jobs and money into our town. It is clear from the petition that was circulated on the need for a new market and from my post bag on the topic, the people of Birkenhead want an attractive market not a cheap third choice collection of stalls in an unsuitable location.

 

A new market or a revamped market that the traders believe has a future is the option you must consider because it is the option that meets the real needs of the people of Birkenhead.

 

And I agree with the people of Birkenhead. Places like Chester and Bury have revitalised their town centres and stimulated economic renewal through the investment and development of attractive markets. Birkenhead should do the same. Its people deserve better than the Argos offer.

 

Already many traders feel betrayed by the process. A considerable number have voted with their feet, closing,or relocating their businesses away from the Market. Those remaining are deeply concerned that they are being subjected to a process of managed decline and the fate facing them is going to follow the same route as the traders at St John’s Market Liverpool – a failed revamp followed by a Council lock out as a result of the collapse of trade in a sterile new environment that customers are repelled by.

 

Any final decision taken on Wednesday that I regard ascontrary to the interests of the traders, to my constituents, and to the revival of the town centre will be a disaster, not just for the Market itself but for the very future of a genuinely regenerated Birkenhead. That is why I am convinced the whole issue requires a rethink. A botched market will cause more problems than it will solve as the experience of St John’s market over the water proves. It will hurt businesses and the many people they employ. It will deter investment and allow the shameful decline of Birkenhead’s town centre to continue unabated. The Council must not be the authors of such a grim future. They should revisit the issue, look into further funding options and listen to the traders and the people of Birkenhead. A failure to this now will surely rebound on the Council and its Labour Councillors well into the future.

 

Yours Sincerely,

Mick Whitley, Member of Parliament for Birkenhead