Debt owed by market traders to Liverpool Council has gone beyond £2m, according to a senior cabinet member.
Despite £2.5m being pumped into the site, a renovation of the site in 2016 was heavily criticised - even by then Mayor Joe Anderson - who initially offered traders three, then six months free rent as an incentive to stay and increase footfall. Around £1m a year was being spent to subsidise the market by the city council.
Cllr Small took part in a phone-in debate with opposition leader, Cllr Carl Cashman, on BBC Radio Merseyside this afternoon and discussed the figures. He said: “The council made the difficult but necessary decision. Colin Laphan, chair of St Johns Market Traders Association, told the programme businesses were seeking to legally challenge the decision to close the market and were confident of victory but faced a battle to raise the necessary funds.