Councillors seek answers over Southport Market’s £435,000 running costs

Councillors were left not much wiser at Tuesday night’s Scrutiny Committee meeting as they endeavoured to discover why the  popular and well-patronised Southport Market Food Hall needs subsiding by the council tax payer to break even. 

The new Southport Market scheme continues to post six figure losses in it’s fifth year of operation despite councillors being confidently told, after a “robust” and “prudential" assessment and business plan, it would be over £100,000 in profit by the third year.

Councillors on the Scrutiny committee were not provided with a breakdown of the £435,000 the Council  spent last year on running the Market.  But were told at the meeting that it covered everything from cleansing and electricity to napkins and serviettes. 

“The detail was missing.” says opposition leader on Sefton , Liberal Democrat, John Pugh , “ but you can obviously get a get a lot of serviettes for that sort of money ! ”  

Somewhere within that figure is the £41,000 the Council is paying one of its other businesses  - its own catering company- for consultancy services.

 Cllr. Pugh explained, “ An argument put in defence by councillor officers is that although the businesses within the market are being directly subsidised by the council taxpayer, the market foodhall acts like a magnet in bringing people into town on an evening who spend money elsewhere too.

 We have seen no data on that, but we know that surrounding businesses who are unsubsidised, like the adjacent old Coronation Pub, continue to struggle. In any case though we could make the same argument for Wetherspoons, but no-one is considering subsidising them.

"There is a serious issue of principle here,” says Cllr.Pugh.

"Councils have traditionally subsidised arts, culture and entertainment as loss leaders bringing people into towns; they haven’t subsidised bars and fast food. But it is fundamentally unfair to expect a food outlet outside the market to subsidise through their rates a food outlet inside the market. 

Officers confirmed last night that there is a whole waiting list of businesses queueing up to get a rent at the market and who can be surprised?  It's the only deal in town where if your profits go down, your rent does as well and the Council picks up the tab for overheads.

Bluntly and inescapably Sefton Council has got its projections badly wrong and we need with some urgency a new business plan with clearly specified milestones and quarterly reports back to councillors. We need to avoid the disaster of the 2005 re-vamp which still costs the council tax payer £237,000 annually in borrowing costs and drove away traders, but we can and certainly must move towards a sustainable and fair outcome. 

There is hope, provided we all understand and have access to what the data actually tells us."

A history of the market development can be found here  https://vimeo.com/892596071