A surprise eviction notice has been served to a distraught butcher who’s been working at Leeds Kirkgate Market for 43 years.
John Paul Johnston is at his wits end and feeling “disgusted” after receiving the letter from Leeds City Council, telling him to leave his market stall by September 16. The father-of-two has been working in the market since 1979 and has had his own shop J.P. Johnston’s Butchers there since 1996.
If John is made to leave in September, there will only be one butcher's shop left in the city-centre market (Bennetts Quality Butchers). Malcolm Michaels Quality Butchers announced they were leaving earlier this week due to “high rent and minimal footfall”.
Read more: Leeds' 'most famous' butcher 'gutted' to leave market after 40 years
John, who’s nearing 60, doesn’t want to be forced into retirement and fears for his three employees’ livelihoods. He received the letter Tuesday (March 15) after coming home from the market.
John said: “I’ve just received a letter terminating my contract. They want to repair the roof. They haven’t offered me anything, they’ve just terminated my contract.
“I haven’t slept all night. I’ve never owed them a penny, I’ve paid all my rents, everything. It got delivered to the house, it gave me a shock.
“They said to me they were doing work on the roof and if I could move, I said yeah but I wanted everything sorted out. I wanted them to move all the units across, I wanted the electric socket line sorted and I wanted it clean because it’s a pigsty in there.
The last time John moved stalls was in 2017 and it cost him “a fortune”. He also claims he was promised a lower rent but ended up paying more, which is £2,500 a month. Before he moved from the now closed-off Butcher’s Row, he was paying £1,500 a month.
'No morals'
John said: “They haven’t had the decency to come up and explain everything to me and actually talk to me. This is what I’ve got in the post, it’s a backhanded way of saying if I want to move across there, then I’ve got to pay everything. It makes me feel disgusted.
“Nearly every trader is unhappy in here. The way we’re getting treated is just terrible. You talk to them [the council] and nothing gets done. They don’t take us seriously, they just treat us like a joke.
“There are no morals at all, they just don’t care about us. We’re just another piece in the puzzle,” he claimed.
The letter from the council says: "In relation to the proposed refurbishment of the above Unit, I am instructed to serve in you a notice, pursuant to section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, to bring your tenancy of the above Unit to an end on 16 September 2022."
John doesn’t know what he is going to do yet and is considering taking the council to court.
'We do not recognise the situation,' says council
A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “Leeds City Council remains in constant discussion with the traders at Kirkgate Market. Specifically, there is an ongoing dialogue with traders around improvement works which often require formal notice to be served to traders when improvements works are undertaken to their individual units. We do not recognise the situation as set out by Mr Johnston.
“The council's commitment to the market and its traders is highlighted by the renovation work we are currently carrying out to all of the 1875 block shops. These units are in an unlettable condition and this work will see them be brought up to modern-day standards, as well as put a stop to the water ingress issues we have in this area, removing the temporary measure we have had to put in place.
“This is a long-standing scheme which unfortunately has been the subject of long-term structural monitoring and difficulties have arisen in terms of finding suitable contractors to undertake this work during the COVID pandemic. As part of each phase of works, tenants have had to be served notice in order for the council to gain vacant possession of their units to undertake the works. Traders will be relocated into temporary units so that they can continue trading during the works, eventually returning to their existing units fully refurbished."
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