Quote: charlie "I thought that the council got the new market hall built for free, as a back hander so to speak from whoever built Trinity Walk?'"
Part of this is correct, the new Market Hall was built by the developers of Trinity Walk at no cost to the
Council, it was built for free because the developers needed the site of the old Market Hall for the Trinity Walk development.
Back when the new Market Hall was built everyone was against it, letter after letter appeared week after week in the Wakefield Express from everyone saying how bad it was. The Market Traders have seen a fall in footfall thru the market hence the fact that full commercial rents have never been charged.
The proposed sale of the site will bring capital income to WMDC part of which will be used to help market traders relocate to either Pontefract or Castleford markets these are more commercial than Wakefield or they can relocate into the Ridings to help fill the vacant shops. The outside market traders will see their businesses offered better outside space with more footfall.