Local Traders Say £12,000 Pitches Price Them Out of Christmas Market
Liverpool traders say they cannot afford a place at this year’s Christmas market at St George’s Plateau since a new operator took over. They have raised the issue with the city council’s leader, Liam Robinson.
The prices in question
Anthony Grice said he was quoted £12,000 for a stall. Jeweller Alex Healy, from Gateacre, has traded at previous markets since 2021 but will not return this year. She told a BBC Radio Merseyside phone-in it would cost her in the region of £14,000 to £15,000, even for the smallest hut available.
Healy said that at that price she physically cannot afford a place. She knows how hard the cost-of-living crisis is for her customers, and raising her own prices is not something she wants to do. She said she should not have to.
What the council leader said
Robinson said he had met business owners to understand the challenges they faced this year, so the council could weigh other options for the future. In his account, the council knew the prices Underbelly, the operator, was offering traders when it won the contract. The council, he added, would also receive part of the income.
He said Underbelly won the tender on quality and price, and has a record of running such markets successfully elsewhere in the country. He invited Healy to meet him to look at ways the council could support her business. Underbelly has been contacted for comment.
Grice said that at a meeting about the plans it felt as if local traders’ concerns were being “swept under the carpet”. He said he asked how many local traders had signed up, and the council did not know.
Political and local reaction
Carl Cashman, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group on the council, called £14,000 “a rip-off”. He said small firms are squeezed by higher business rates, inflation and payroll bills while shoppers spend less. In his view the risk is too big for them, and the market will not be as good as a result.
Grice said markets like this should show off the best the city has. He found it annoying that the local character was missing, and asked whether local people were not good enough.
A council spokesperson pointed to other outlets for local sellers. Artisan goods can be sold at a Saturday street market on Basnett Street throughout November. Lark Lane and Woolton Village will also host regular and pop-up markets before Christmas.
Source: BBC News