Traders at Birmingham Wholesale Markets 'in limbo' over delay to planned move
Traders at Birmingham’s wholesale markets face years stuck at their “not fit for purpose” Digbeth site following delays in the £100 million plan to move them out of town.
Wholesalers have been forced to put up with leaking roofs and potholes at the 35-year-old markets, but were last year promised a new home in Witton touted as a potential food tourism destination recognised on a European scale.
But now Prupim, the council’s preferred bidder to develop the new site at The Hub, has admitted its original timescale had been revised and said no planning permission had yet been submitted for the next generation markets.
Under Prupim’s original plans, traders would have moved to Witton, the former premises of IMI, by January 2012. Now wholesalers have no idea when the move will go ahead.
Traders at the market say they had been told the move had been delayed because of funding issues at the council, but a Prupim spokesman said it was down to the complexity of the scheme.
Now the 4,000 businesses dependant on the wholesale markets face a period in limbo waiting for the consultation and planning application process to finally go through.
Peter Marshall, director of fruit and vegetable wholesaler Hegashall, said the uncertainty around the move was having a serious effect on businesses at the wholesale markets.
“We’re very much in limbo – we don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “Our leases ran out in August last year and we are now on a 12-month rolling lease. We can’t invest here because we don’t know how long we are going to be here.
“We can’t think about getting new kit – things like new fridges and racking – because we could be here for another three years or another 10 years.”
Birmingham City Council acknowledged last year, when it announced plans for the move, that the current site was “no longer fit for purpose”.
“The roof is completely shot,” addedMr Marshall.
