St John’s, Liverpool’s punch-drunk market, is finally KO’d by the council
Plus: Steve Rotheram launches his bid for re-election as metro mayor
Dear readers — we’re still basking in the aftermath of last Thursday’s first-ever Post members event; a huge thank you to all who came along. It was lovely to meet some of you in person and hear all about the stories you think we should be covering this year. And if you weren’t able to make it, fear not, another event is already in the works for the summer.
Talking of members: We’re now only 25 paid members away from hitting 1,500 of you. We’re chuffed to bits that so many people across Merseyside have decided to get behind our mission to give our city the journalism it deserves. If you’ve been thinking of joining for a while, could you be one of the heroes that gets us there? It costs just £7 a month — and means you get extra articles and invites to our events. More than that — you’ll be joining a community of locally committed citizens who think what we do matters. It would mean the world to us, and you can take out a 7-day free trial to make sure you like it.
In case you missed it: over the weekend Jack met up with Gary Youds, the world’s most resilient cannabis campaigner (“He’s Rocky, he’s the phoenix” as one of his supporters told us) who is free from prison for the fourth time. Grab your lighter and enjoy…
Elsewhere last week, Abi published a seriously controversial piece that has many of you chatting in the comments (and some — presumably not our members — sending poor Abi irate emails). She investigated the goings on at the Beacon Project — a stalled development in Hoylake that has been shrouded in mystery since 2018, splitting the town along a fault line in the process. Have a read of that here.
Open newsroom
If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@livpost.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.
- We’re looking into Liverpool entrepreneur Fenir Saba. Please email abi@livpost.co.uk with any tips or information.
- We’re taking a look at Sefton Arc and would be keen to speak to present and past employees. Drop Lisa a message at lisa@livpost.co.uk.
The Big Story: St John’s, Liverpool’s punch-drunk market, is finally KO’d by the council
Top line: Traders at St John’s Market turned up for work this morning to find themselves locked out of their stalls, with several burly security guards standing guard at the entrance.
After almost 200 years (the market was founded in 1822) this appears to be the end of the line. Dozens of stallholders were given their marching orders by Liverpool City Council (LCC), which is the landlord, as they arrived to set up for the day. Suffice to say, they’re not happy (and by “not happy”, we mean they’re accusing the council of acting like “the mafia”).
- Traders say they were refused access to the market — the front entrance has been locked, new cameras fitted “overnight”, and glass doors covered with paper obscuring views of inside.
- Several security guards, manning the now-shuttered entrance, handed letters to stallholders saying their lease had been terminated with immediate effect due to non-payment of backdated rent.
The backstory: The situation has been ongoing for a while, with traders locked in a dispute with the council over rent that dated back to when the market was reopened during Covid in 2020.
- Stallholders, many of whom have had pitches at the market for years, say they were left with facilities not fit for purpose after a controversial £2.5m ‘revamp’ in 2017, which left a much smaller market and traders trying to sell their wares from glorified “storage units.”
- The council had written off rents from traders between 2017 until 2020 but were demanding around £1.7m of arrears it claims is owed from that point.
- In a statement released this morning by LCC, cabinet member Nick Small said the decision to end the tenancies and close the market had been taken “reluctantly”.
- A council spokesperson claimed the local authority had been “forced” to kick the traders out after not receiving a “meaningful response” to attempts to negotiate over the disputed arrears and rent going forward.
The dispute: Traders say they had offered on numerous occasions to pay a reduced rent, deeming the stalls not worth the price being charged but that these offers were “largely ignored” by the council.
- The council said they had not been prepared to accept the traders’ offer — which amounted to 33% of the rent being asked for — as it was “deemed unviable given the scale of the debts owed”.
As well as the dispute over rent, the council said they’ve had to spend millions in recent years subsidising the market — something it is also no longer prepared to do given financial pressures.
Blindsided: One long-standing trader, Max Dixon, spoke to The Post as he stood outside the market with his dad and fellow traders this morning. Dixon — who has been on X accusing the council of “acting like the mafia” — said stall-holders had been blindsided by the decision after being sent letters in January suggesting traders still had six months to carry out negotiations.
The council say stallholders were told they had 30 days to start individual negotiations but Dixon said many were part of a traders’ association and had sought to negotiate collectively which the council had resisted, leading to something of a stalemate.
Unsurprising: Dixon says while he was shocked to find himself and the other traders locked out this morning, he was “entirely unsurprised” the council would take such a dramatic course of action, coming as it did after years of tensions stemming back to a refurbishment of the market in 2017 which left many unhappy with the facilities they had been offered.
- The Post had previously reported on anger from traders at the ongoing state of the market. There were reports of broken lifts, flooding stalls (with faeces from defective toilets — apologies to those having a late lunch) and oppressive heat — all putting customers off visiting and leaving trader numbers dwindling.
What next: The council said it remained “committed to a viable and sustainable future use of the site” with all “feasible options” being considered. And what of the stallholders, many of whom have just lost their livelihoods? “We’ll have to regroup and plan our next move,” Dixon tells us. “Right now, I’m off to see my solicitor”.
Post Picks
🎸 Pop band The Blow Monkeys take to Hangar 34 this Wednesday. If you’ve been Digging Their Scene over the last 40 years then make sure you join Abi down at this one. Buy a ticket here.
⭐ Head to Lunt Meadows on Friday for a chance to try stargazing with an experienced astronomer. The session runs from 5.30pm to 8.30pm — find out more here.
🎧 This Saturday Wombat Jazz Club is hosting another get together in the basement of Ettie’s on Bold Street. Expect good moves and even greater tunes — buy a ticket here.
🌸 Get yourself to Croxteth Hall on Saturday for a lesson in hybridising orchids with the Liverpool Botanical Trust. The event starts at 10am sharp (with Jack sure to be seen spritzing rare blooms and celebrating his achievements).
Refer friends, get benefits. As part of our mission to grow our community and have more impact, we’re asking you to refer your friends. But this is no one-way street. If you refer three friends, who just need to sign up to our free e-mails, you can get a months’ free membership. Reach the heady heights of ten members, and you can get your mitts on an exclusive The Post tote bag. Get your special link and start referring here:
Photo of the week: The red mist descends
We can’t get enough of this fantastic snapshot of yesterday’s Liverpool FC match against Man City, taken by Abi O’Connor and posted on X.
Your Post briefing
Bizarre scenes (nuts, even) unfolded outside a council meeting last week as campaigners dressed as squirrels gathered to protest against plans to extend a cemetery into woodland. Chaos ensued after a woman was allegedly assaulted by a security guard outside the meeting at Huyton municipal offices. Merseyside Police are now investigating and the council have released security camera footage to let people “see for themselves”. Mysteriously, the police have since called for any information about a man who left the scene on a black Yamaha motorbike. The Post is also keen to get to the kernel of this one. Email lisa@livpost.co.uk.
Steve Rotheram is launching his bid for re-election as metro mayor of the Liverpool City Region today at The Spine (we hope there are rice sandwiches on offer amongst the buffet) and will be the clear favourite to win. To coincide with the campaign launch, news is once again surfacing that Rotheram’s pet renewable energy project — a tidal barrage across the Mersey — is progressing. Apparently, “advanced proposals” have been unveiled (take a look at those here) but considerable scepticism will remain over the project’s deliverability. It has, after all, been mooted virtually every two years for the past five decades.
Deep unrest among the almshouses in the historic Knowsley village, where tenants fear being uprooted by their aristocratic landlord, the Earl of Derby. A letter received by tenants this week indicated the Earl is selling up, and requested they make their houses available for a surveyor to look round. Edward Stanley (the 19th Earl) resides in the massive, listed Knowsley Hall and also has a residence in London. Know any more? Email lisa@livpost.co.uk.
And finally, while the nation’s mums were being presented with flowers and taken out to champagne lunches on Sunday, an altogether different scene was playing out at The Restaurant Bar & Grill on Brunswick Street. As the Echo reported, footage shared online from the venue “shows two women grappling, punching and pulling each other's hair”. Amidst the melee, one startled onlooker is heard shouting “she's punching her head in”. Another voice adds: "This is our Mothers’ Day!"
Home of the week
This four bedroom home in Aigburth is just a short walk away from Sefton Park and Otterspool Promenade. It has plenty of natural light for house plants to soak on up, and just look at that garden! It is on the market for £425,000 — find out more here.
Recommended reads
A great piece from the New York Times archives on Wirral’s own Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. “Little is remembered about the first O.M.D. gig other than that turnout was low, maybe 30 people,” author Hugo Lindgren writes. “[Lead singer] McCluskey was amazed to discover that Joy Division’s singer, Ian Curtis, had an awkward dancing style similar to his own.”
Another brilliantly funny review of Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham’s new book, Head North, in the New Statesman. “The Liverpool-born metro mayors of Manchester and Liverpool have tried maybe a little too desperately to portray themselves as relatable, laddish deviations from the identikit politician…”
