'Liability' car park at historic Nottingham market being sold off ahead of closure

Nottingham City Council is selling off a car park serving a historic market which is set to close in months. The Labour-run authority is set to close the Victoria Centre Market by March 31, 2025.

The closure follows years of uncertainty over the Victoria Centre-based market, which the city council has operated since 1971. Traders, many of who have been based in the market for decades, were first told the council would be surrendering its lease on the market in February 2022.

Several failed rounds of negotiations fell through and the March 31 closure date is the latest in a long line of closure dates that have been and gone. Traders believe that the March 31 date will be the end though and many have already had to leave.

Ahead of the imminent closure, the city council now says it will sell off the Glasshouse Street car park once used by Victoria Centre Market staff. In a report published on December 10, the city council says: "The property comprises a vacant, open, site that has been used until two years ago as parking for the Victoria Centre Market team for car parking and more recently as a construction compound.

"The requirement for parking has now ceased and to bring it back into beneficial use would require capital expenditure which outweighs potential income. The site could be subject to anti-social behaviour and become a liability for the property management team."

The city council has been selling off its assets for years as it battles multi-million pound holes in its finances. The sales have become particularly important recently as the council seeks to pay back government help that allowed it to set a balanced budget in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.

Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) is a mechanism which allows councils to use money generated by selling off assets to fund day-to-day costs. Nottingham City Council was given approval in February 2024 to use this mechanism to a value of up to £65 million.

The council's ability to pay this support back is therefore dependent on achieving the money it thought it would from selling assets. Yet the current forecast for this ongoing financial year, ending in April, is that the council will be short by over £10 million in terms of capital receipts. The council says: "If these positions hold true or get worse, the council could be required to undertake additional temporary borrowing of the same value to fund EFS."