Wakefield market hall to close and be replaced with cinema -end of line for £3m award winning David Adjaye building report suggests

A report to Wakefield Council’s cabinet says an approach has been made by Sovereign Land (Management) Ltd, the owners of Trinity Walk shopping centre, to redevelop the market site.

If the plan is approved the market hall will be closed and replaced with a new multi-screen cinema, restaurants and café units.

The report states that a £100,000 relocation package would be created to help market traders to move to a new outdoor market in the city centre.

The £3m market hall opened in 2008,

But the award winning David Adjaye-designed building met with criticism.

In 2009 a meeting of the council’s economic growth overview and scrutiny committee was told the ‘building should be torn down — and should never have been built in the first place’.

Committee member, Janice Haigh, said the layout was wrong, and added that “a crane with one of those demolition balls” would be one way to improve it.

Also that same year of a team of consultants were hired by Wakefield Council to help eliminate ‘design flaws’ at the market.

Problems included substandard paving, inadequate drainage in the food hall and the layout.

In a statement issued today, Wakefield Council said; “ Despite significant efforts and initiatives to encourage support for the market hall it has struggled. Wakefield’s market hall traders have been heavily subsidised by the council since 2008, a situation that the report highlights is neither equitable nor acceptable moving forward.

“Footfall figures show that Wakefield market attracts fewer shoppers than the indoor markets in Pontefract and Castleford. The report says that surveys nationally show that a third of all markets have seen a continuing decrease in shoppers, with indoor markets more pronounced than outdoor markets.”