TRADERS have threatened legal action after council chiefs did a U-turn on a £5 million revamp of Bury market.

They are furious that local authority leaders ripped up a compromise location for the new meat and fish hall after town centre developers MEPC threatened to pull out of the scheme.

And they claim they were not told about last Thursday's emergency meeting which overturned earlier plans.

Malcolm Lee, chairman of Bury Open Market Traders Association, says he phoned the town hall on Monday and Tuesday last week with no reply.

"We only found out about it the day after on Good Friday, when someone from the markets office gave us the agenda.

"After twelve months of consultation, at the Cup Final the biggest partner - although not the wealthiest - was not even there."

Selling the current meat and fish hall to MEPC for £1.4 million is a crucial part of the refurbishment, for which Bury has been given £2.9 million from the Government. The new hall will now be built on the site of the former NatWest bank in The Square. This overturned an earlier "final" decision, a compromise plan putting the hall behind Princess Parade on the George and Wyndham blocks.

After that, MEPC wrote to the council saying they could not support the scheme unless the new hall was built on the NatWest site: and if they won't buy the current hall, the whole scheme is effectively killed.

Mr Lee said MEPC had put a gun to the council's head, and his association was now taking legal advice.

"Who runs this town?" he said. "Do I send my council tax to MEPC? Do I pay my rent to them?"

The NatWest plan was backed by councillors of all parties at Thursday's meeting.

They said that some outdoor traders had also complained about the "compromise" site, meaning that none of the council's three partners were happy.

Another reason for the change was that it could take the council years to force indoor tenants to quit, costing a small fortune in compensation.

Leaders of Bury Market Tenants Association, or "indoor" traders, are happy with the NatWest solution. They say the previous decision would have meant placing a five-day market on a three-day site, costing them dear. But Mr Lee says the NatWest option will "plug" the precinct and leave open market traders isolated.

"We oppose it. It says nothing about the 25-30 traders that will be displaced, the people who will have to be laid off, anything about compensation."

Keith Beamer, borough property services manager, admitted that MEPC had the major financial cards to play.

But he said: "These were not rules the council set, but those of the Capital Challenge Bid, which required us to unlock private sector finance."

He added: "There will be areas where we will meet traders for consultation, and all partners will have the opportunity to say their bit."

Charles Ryder, assistant chief executive, said an emergency meeting was precisely that: last Thursday's meeting was not called until Tuesday.

He had informed the "indoor" tenants' association, who did attend the meeting, by phone because they had specifically asked to be called: the outdoor market traders had not.

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