Market traders strike ‘ideal rent compromise’
Traders on the lower rent rates of between €8 and €10 per square foot annually agreed to pay €14.80 per sq ft until the next round of rent negotiations in 2009.
The payments in the city council-run market are backdated to January.
English Market Traders’ Association chairwoman Mary Rose Daly described it as the “ideal compromise”.
Agreement came following days of intensive talks between traders and city officials after almost a year of negotiations.
City management had been looking for those on the lower rates to pay €20 per sq ft through incremental rent increases up to 2009.
Increases were to be based after that date based on rises in the consumer price index, city manager Joe Gavin said.
But the traders’ association had consistently opposed the size of the hikes.
Increases of up to 128% were unsustainable for the smaller, family-run stalls, Ms Daly said.
The issue came to a head last Monday when Mr Gavin presented councillors with a report outlining the situation.
Two senior city officials had spent the last year trying to negotiate a new rent increase with traders but both sides failed to reach agreement, councillors were told.
The rent increases being sought were fair and equitable, the city manager said. They were necessary to secure investment in the market, he claimed.
Income last year from the English Market, a noted tourist attraction, was €75,000 but it cost the city €70,000 just to paint it, Mr Gavin said.
In the absence of a deal, traders faced the prospect of having the rates set by binding arbitration by a third party as per the terms of their leases.
City councillors called for further talks and, after a three-hour meeting on Thursday, traders agreed on the new €14.80 rate.
Labour Cllr Ciarán Lynch welcomed the agreement last night.
“I am glad that the possible crisis facing traders in this essential feature of Cork city life has been averted,” he said. “I’m pleased both parties are walking away from the negotiating table on an agreed position.”
There are 42 traders running stalls in the English Market.
Nine tenants pay between €11 and €20 per sq ft and a small number of newer tenants pay between €35 and €42 per sq ft.
