Market traders fear they will be forced to move out

Furious traders are accusing Middlesbrough Borough Council, owner of the lease on the Hill Street Centre indoor market, Middlesbrough, of planning to sacrifice the small businesses to clinch a deal with the centre's builder, Sun Alliance.

It is understood that Sun Alliance wants to buy the centre's lease back from the Labour-controlled council, and that the area covered by the indoor market has been earmarked for a clothing store.

Tomorrow, the council decides behind closed doors whether the retailers will be told to move out.

Angry traders claim they have not been consulted. More than 2,000 names have been collected on protest petitions in two days.

Haberdasher George Davies said: "There has been no consultation, no face-to-face meetings; yet the council's cabinet will make a decision on Tuesday.

"The indoor market was opened for small businesses to set up and get established.

"Most of them will now go to the wall. Where do you find the same sort of site ? They can't afford town centre rents."

Hairdresser Joanne Adamson said: "We are furious, we have not had a chance to put our views, and the public don't want us to go.

"There have been rumours flying about, but each time we put them to the council we get fobbed off. There are people with thousands of pounds worth of stock. How can they sell all that off in just four weeks?"

"It has taken me five years to build up my clientele. I don't know what I will do, but I'll have to find something to meet my mortgage payments."

A council spokesman said: "The council always keeps its assets under review, as it is obliged to do, to ensure that are used in a way to achieve the best value for money for the residents of Middlesbrough.

"A report of the council's property assets in the Hill Street Centre will be considered at a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday.

"As the report contains matters which have commercial confidentiality, we would not comment until after the meeting."