‘It is a tragedy’: Victoria Market traders criticise council as closure date looms

Traders at the Victoria Centre Market have hailed the end of a long period of uncertainty as their closure date looms – but say they should have been treated with more respect by the council.

Nottingham City Council first announced it wanted to close the market in 2022, arguing it had been forced to subsidise it for nearly a decade, ever since the shopping centre’s previous owners, intu, put service charges up.

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More than two years later, in September 2024, the Labour-run authority said it had started terminating legal agreements with traders who had break clauses or “significant rent arrears”.

Towards the end of last year the council began formally notifying traders to leave.

Most traders were given an exit date of March 31, 2025, but three traders were told to hand back their keys in October.

Those who still remain now have under a month to leave.

Anthony Truin, 56, who has been running his foam shop Tony-Tex for more than three decades, said: “It has been dragging a long, long time and the market has deteriorated.

“I got a closure date on February 28, giving me a months’ notice to quit. At least I know where I stand now, before I had uncertainty. Nothing has been clear.

“At least I know I am going now so it is off my mind. I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m going to do. Like I say a months’ notice to move all this stuff is not a lot.

“I’ve been here since I was 18. I was 10 stone and had hair then, and now I’m 15 stone and have got no hair. I’ve grown up in the old times, I’m not very computer literate, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

“I will probably pack this up, have a month off to recoup, and probably just try and get a job if anyone out there has got a job for me. I’m hard-working, reliable and trustworthy, that’s the main thing.”

Carole Lilley, who runs ‘Carole’s’, an underwear stall, has been trading at the market for 38 years.

“It is good to actually have a date now,” she said.

“But it has taken too long and it has been very distressing. Mentally it has not done me any good. I don’t sleep at night. I am constantly at the doctors.

“It is a tragedy. It should have been handled completely differently, but to drag it on in this manner it has just fallen to pieces.

“I should definitely have gone two years ago when they first said they would close it down. I thought I would stay and hopefully get some compensation and be treated with a bit more respect.”

The authority has about 50 years remaining on its lease of the market, and in 2022 it said it would seek to end the lease early in a bid to save £39m.

But in June 2023 negotiations to come to an agreement with centre manager Global Mutual, which took over from intu after its collapse, fell through.

Traders said they were left even more confused after a meeting was held the same month to inform them of the failure to come to an agreement – and that the market would remain open.

New traders were invited to set up on short-term leases while the council decided on what to do next.

Just a few months later in December, after the council declared itself effectively bankrupt, traders were then informed the the authority had decided to end the lease by summer or autumn 2024.

The closure date failed to materialise again.

The council was contacted for comment, but did not reply by time of publication.

A spokesman previously said: “Unfortunately, several stallholders have breached their legal agreements by failing to pay rent, collectively owing the council over £400,000.

“Any trader with significant unpaid rent has been or will be formally notified to vacate the market.

“With the council facing substantial financial challenges, it’s crucial that we address these outstanding rent issues.

“Additionally, we will be terminating legal agreements with traders who have applicable break clauses to cease their occupancy at the market.”