Birmingham MP calls on city council leader to intervene in Wholesale markets crisis

A Birmingham MP has demanded a meeting with city council leader Mike Whitby to discuss the future of the Wholesale Markets.

Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood has written to the Tory chief asking him to intervene and secure the future of the site.

Her letter comes after it emerged that traders were told the Digbeth-based market would close in summer 2013, despite the council’s claim that the date was just “indicative” and not a cast-iron deadline.

So far, Coun Whitby has not commented on the markets issue, even though more than 10,000 people have signed petitions supporting the markets.

The Labour MP, who last week backed a Support our Markets campaign, led by the Birmingham Post’s sister paper the Birmingham Mail, called for the meeting as a “matter of urgency” this week.

She pointed out that the council press office had posted a ‘myth-busting’ statement on its website and which had been amended and then contradicted by minutes of meetings between traders and council officials.

She said: “I am worried that this issue is being viewed by the council as a negative media story that needs to be managed, rather than a crisis affecting the city which needs to be resolved.”

She has asked the leader to formally confirm the minutes and make a definitive statement on the market’s future.

Miss Mahmood has also asked the council to reveal the costs and incomes of the various options for the markets considered by the council.

This referred to an agenda from a private council cabinet meeting, which although published by the city council, had all the financial information blacked out.

Coun Whitby needed to make a definitive statement that the wholesale markets was of crucial importance to the Birmingham and regional economy, she said.

A campaign to save the markets was launched after a deal to move it to Witton collapsed. Despite this the council announced it still planned to close the markets in 2013 and had withdrawn its relocation subsidies - leaving it to the traders to find a private sector market provider.

Coun Whitby was not available for comment.