DERBY'S Eagle Market should be closed, Market Hall retained and a three-day-a-week outdoor market put on the Market Place, the president of a national markets group says.
But stallholders in the Eagle Market say the bold vision from Mick Barker, also city councillor for Oakwood, is ill-informed and that, with better management from the council and fairer rent, it could boom again. It is a debate of real importance now that the council has launched a review of the future of both the Eagle Market and Market Hall.
Mr Barker, president of the National Association of British Market Authorities (NABMA), said: "There would be the option for [Eagle Centre] traders to be moved into the Market Hall ... but there is no doubt that traders also need a shot of reality. They need to ask 'are we really making a living out of selling these anoraks or would we do better going into jeans or wool wear'."
Lyndsey Morgan, who runs the Eagle Market's Morgan's Deli, said Mr Barker's words were distressing "when people's livelihoods were at stake."
He said: "Mr Barker has never come to speak to us – we invite him to do so – and he doesn't the information we have."
Mr Morgan was speaking to the Derby Telegraph outside the Eagle Centre Market's unit No 6, a gloomy sight, with its shutters down as they have been for more than 12 years. It is one of 57 vacant units currently in the centre, meaning 40% are not in use.
Mr Morgan said: "The cost total of running that unit is £33,000 a year and it's been like that for a long time. The most recent rent levels were established around the boom time when Westfield was first built. The council are asking for twice as much as they can get."
He, like several other stallholders, believes the stalls pricing structure in the Eagle Centre is unfair – the rent, and the charges for services like cleaning and security.
Back in March, independent experts who wrote a report, commissioned by the traders, found that the top rent rate for a stall in the Eagle Market – £30 per square foot, per year – was a third more than they recommended.
And that report, Mr Morgan, said did not take into account that stalls facing Theatre Walk – but still part of the market – are charged £34.
In addition, the average charge for services like cleaning and security for 2014-15 is another £1.04 per square foot, 61p cheaper than the average paid by shops on the Derby Theatre side of Theatre Walk. This, the council says, is down to them receiving fewer services.
During its review, the council has promised to speak with market traders, its partners, and councillors before making a decision and it will also take on board the views of national markets organisation NABMA, which offers its own consultancy for market operations.
Its president is Mick Barker, also Conservative councillor for Oakwood, who says it is time for major change, an end to Derby having two indoor markets within 400m of each other and selling similar products – and an end to the Eagle Market. He says it is time for Derby city centre to have an outdoor market again – on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in the Market Place.
Mr Barker said of bringing back the outdoor market: "It's about going back to basics – back to what a market is all about. People would come to the outside market with their fresh eggs, vegetables, crafts. If you have this three-day-a-week market you would bring footfall to Market Place, Market Hall and the Cathedral Quarter."
Traders in the Eagle Market and Market Hall have a lease that does not expire until 2016. They have "protected tenancies" which means they are entitled to renewal of their lease after that time. So it looks as if any major changes will involve co-operation and agreement between the council and stallholders.
The March report was drawn up by Derby-based Raeburn Consulting, which specialises in resolving disputes between landlord and tenant.
Mr Morgan said it was handed in to the city council and acknowledged as "useful" but said he had not heard anything about it since.
Now, a council spokeswoman has said that the findings will be taken into account as part of the review.
Mr Morgan said other issues holding the Eagle Centre back included a lack of flexibility when it came to new stall applicants.
He said: "The council won't budge on prices and they won't accept shared stalls."
A council spokeswoman agreed that rents and service charges were fixed but added that "concessions and incentives" were available, such as 50% rent discount for the first seven months.
Kay Woodhouse, joint owner of a pet and fruit and vegetable stores in the Eagle Centre, also said it took about a year between an applicant inquiring about a stall and getting one.
Such a long wait is something the council said was "rare". It said credit checks needed to be made, references checked and works carried out to bring a unit up to standard.
Mr Barker has other theories about the decline of the indoor markets – some of which stallholders agree with. These included what he called a lack of a long-term vision.
Mr Barker said: "Markets in their heyday were a cash cow for councils but they used the income from markets to pay for all sorts of things and didn't necessarily plough it back into markets so the infrastructure has deteriorated.
"Over the last few years, and successive regimes at the council, markets have been passed from pillar to post in relationship to the managerial structure."
He said there was also an issue with Derby Live, the council's entertainment arm, being in charge of city centre street vendors, such as those on the Christmas market.
Mr Barker said: "If the Derby Live and markets officers don't speak, how do they know they are not undermining rent payers in the Market Hall, for example?"
And he believes the council should have staff dealing with the markets actually based in the Market Hall, instead of where they currently are at Nottingham Road Cemetery. That positioning is down to the fact that the boss is the bereavement services manager as well as head of markets.
Mr Barker said: "You need a strong markets officer to say 'no I'm not prepared to give you a unit because you'll go under'. And you need them based in the Market Hall."
It is a tricky conundrum for those carrying out the markets review.
In the three years up to and including 2013-14, the council says it made a loss of £412,470 on Market Hall but gained £11,521 on the Eagle Market.
Mr Morgan said he had heard far higher profit figures for the Eagle Market.
It is an issue the council will have to consider in its review.
The council spokeswoman said: "It has been identified that a future role for city centre market's offer needs to be developed in the context of a strategic vision for a city centre retail and cultural offer.
"To achieve this will be working with the market traders' community, all stakeholders, partners, councillors, and drawing in, as required, external specialist advice."
Another issue the city council will have to take into account, when deciding on the indoor markets' future, is that expensive roof repair work is "likely to be needed" at the Market Hall. A council spokeswoman said this would have "a significant impact on the operation of the market over a prolonged period". She said: "This will be considered in more detail when the Market Hall is reviewed as part of our property rationalisation agenda." One of the Market Hall stallholders, Lorna Margett, owner of Flowers by Joy, previously said she hoped that, when the council reviewed the markets, it would look at how more could be made of Market Hall being an old Victorian building. She said there was also more that could be done to build on its "excellent" atmosphere and diversity. The council is in the process of appointing consultants to carry out the review.