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The Chair noted that an addition to the recommendations in the report had been circulated to Members of the Committee from the Director of Regeneration and Place. The additional recommendation read as follows:

“The Director of Regeneration and Place wishes to make a further recommendation as follows to the above report as a new paragraph 7. Paragraph 7 of the recommendations within the report will be numbered as Recommendation 8:

Other Options

7. Agree that in recognition of recent engagement with Birkenhead Market Traders Association the Director of Regeneration and Place be requested to undertake further feasibility work on both:

a) St John's Pavement to determine whether this is a viable option for market traders; and

 b)  the refurbishment of part of the existing Birkenhead Market.”  

The Assistant Director for Asset Management and Investment presented the report of the Director of Regeneration and Place. The report noted that the current Birkenhead Market Hall was an aging building, operating inefficiently and the Council had been considering options to re-locate the market to an alternative market site for several years. A number of options had been considered and rejected for a variety of reasons detailed in the report, leaving the proposal to relocate the existing market to a new purpose-built market hall on the site of the former House of Fraser Store, as the current option subject to the scheme being delivered to an acceptable design and cost.

The capital cost of delivery for the House of Fraser proposal was at £31.6 million and the emerging funding gap could have had a significant impact on the Councils financial position.

The report noted that the Council acquired the Grange and the Pyramids in May 2023 and as part of the acquisition a strategic review of the vacant sites and sites that could accommodate a market offer to a similar size of the House of Fraser proposal had been undertaken. The report proposed to examine in detail an alternative permanent option in the former Argos Store located in the Grange shopping centre. However, the Council was at an early stage of engagement with new representatives for the market traders and consideration of alternative options was appropriate.

A discussion was had on the rise in costs of the House of Fraser site and the perceived slippage of the offer to traders, the need for further information on the costs involved and the housing requirements involved from grant funding received from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.  Members requested more communication from officers on plans and noted that the original plans for the House of Fraser site were  meant to be a lynchpin for the regeneration of the area. Concerns were raised as to whether the proposed move to the former Argos site would  have the same impact. Members were informed that the number of stalls available at the Argos site was comparable to the House of Fraser site.

Members were informed that Councillor Helen Raymond wished to move an amendment which had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49