Trader fears stall will not survive city works
Amjad Hussain supports the Coventry revamp plans, but says sales have dropped 70%.
**Trader fears stall will not survive city works**
**Coventry City Council has announced £1.25m of external improvements to the market**
A market trader in Coventry has said he is worried his business may not make it through as sales have fallen sharply during a long-running redevelopment of the wider area.
Amjad Hussain, who runs a sports supplements stall at Coventry Market on Queen Victoria Road, said he was glad the local authority intended to spend £1.25m on refurbishing the building as part of the project.
Like many other traders at the market, his rent has been cut by the council to account for the disruption, but he said sales had already fallen by "more than 70%" since work started on the wider scheme and he called for further help, including with parking.
Hussain said the plans for the indoor market were "really good" but that his future at the site was uncertain because of the city's redevelopment works, which are due to be finished by 2034.
"It's going to be good for us when it's completed, but we have to survive until then," he added.
The City Centre South development is set to deliver more than 1,500 new homes to the city, together with 18,000 sq m (21,529 sq yds) of public space, restaurants, shops and other leisure facilities.
Coventry Market is located beside that development.
Hussain said that because of the current works, the market had lost access to the nearby public car parks that his regular customers depended on.
"I used to buy stock every two weeks, but now I've stopped buying [it] because I can't sell it. My customers have stopped coming into the market because they can't park nearby," he said.
"I don't know how long they are going to take to do the work.
"We didn't know how much it was going to hit us, but it has hit us really, really hard."
Chris Charley, from Coventry Indoor Market Committee, said traders were largely supportive of the plans, although some would be directly affected.
"There's still a few things that we need to work out with the council that are going to be impacted on specific traders," he said.
"We haven't had an investment like this for decades. So it's good, it's positive news.
"We're just looking forward to seeing exactly how it develops and comes to fruition, but we're thinking it's good at the moment."