Controversial decision to move historic market scrapped after rancour about plan costing taxpayers over £1m

Wirral Council’s leader Cllr Paula Basnett said she was “delighted” to cancel a proposed move of Birkenhead Market to as former Argos site in the town. The Argos plans were first revealed by the LDRS in September 2023.

Further details later emerged suggesting previous plans for the market to be based on the town’s former House of Fraser building, which cost £1.5m to produce, were scrapped over email. Birkenhead’s former Argos building on Princes Pavements was later confirmed as the planned location for the new market in December 2023.

The proposal was then given the go-ahead in March 2024 despite strong opposition from traders, Birkenhead’s MP at the time, and some councillors. £1.3m was then spent on the Argos plans despite the continued opposition of traders who felt the market would cease to exist in that location.

Some businesses have now left the market and the local authority is currently subsidising it to the tune of £750,000 per year.

However after a change in leadership at the top of the council and discussions held with market traders, there is no longer the political support for the Argos plan and it was unanimously scrapped at a regeneration committee meeting on September 4, before being rubber stamped at the policy and resources committee on September 10.

Wirral Council is now going to look at a number of options going forward “as a matter of urgency” though a likely option is revamping the current market next to the Pyramids Shopping Centre. Various ideas have been put forward since the council bought the market in 2018.

The council has been given an extra 12 months to deliver the new market by the government. This means a new market will need to be delivered by 2028. Following the decision, Greg McTigue, vice-chair of the organisation representing market traders, said despite current challenges with trade, he is optimistic about the future and felt “unbounded joy” that the Argos plan had been scrapped.

He said the council’s current political leadership “seem to be very much on the side of the people and the traders rather than the penpushers,” adding: “We have a feeling that their sympathies are on our side. At the end of the day we do know it’s down to what is in the till and what is going to be possible. I think they are still working on that.”

At the meetings on September 4 and 10, the shift in the council’s approach was clear. Labour councillor Paul Martin said he couldn’t “help but feel a real sense of positivity at this at last” and argued “the Argos plan was doomed to failure.”

Cllr Basnett said she and her deputy Cllr Julie McManus were listening to traders but “more importantly we are acting upon what they are asking for.” Cllr McManus said they’d been led to believe the site was large, adding: “It was absolutely not big enough for the traders we’ve got now, let alone attract new traders.”

Birkenhead councillor Pat Cleary said the Green Party had always opposed the Argos plans arguing it was always the wrong option, adding: “What comes next is absolutely pivotal.”

Calls were also made by Liberal Democrat Cllr Phil Gilchrist to promote the current market and its traders more. Officers said they were planning to hold events in the town centre to boost footfall in the run up to Christmas as well as complete the works currently taking place.