Locked out Birmingham market traders struggle to get their goods

Market stallholders said they have not been able to get their goods for about three days since they were told the firm running it went out of business.

Traders at Market Village, within the One Stop Shopping centre in Birmingham, said they were given hours to leave and were locked out on Friday.

Some said an invitation to collect goods on Monday had been cancelled.

The BBC contacted the company that runs the market hall, Perry Barr Market Properties Limited, for comment.

One stallholder for 20 years, Samantha Small, who owns a beauty and aesthetics store, said: "Today [they're] telling us that we can't get our stuff.

"I've just over £10,000 worth of products and equipment in there so actually I need that to actually try and generate income while they decide on what they're doing."

Perry Barr Market Properties wrote letters to them on Friday. On Monday, a spokesman for Cowgills said the company had been engaged to help take the necessary steps in placing the companies involved into voluntary liquidation.

Ms Small added on Friday, people were given "two hours' notice saying that this is our last day".

She collected as many products as she could and arranged to visit clients but would like to return to the market.

Roy Kumari, who sold bags and luggage at the site, said he came on Monday to pick up goods "but they've cancelled".

He added he could not sleep and "I don't know how I'm going to pay my mortgage and my heating as well".

"We were just about surviving anyway," he said.

Traders were due to meet Birmingham Perry Barr Labour MP Khalid Mahmood on Tuesday.

Accountants Cowgills said it was engaged to help Perry Barr Market Properties Limited directors in taking action to put it into a creditors' voluntary liquidation.

It added the company was insolvent, "not yet in liquidation" and directors had taken steps "to cease operations to avoid any further losses to creditors".

One Stop Shopping, which runs the centre where Market Village was based, said this "unforeseen event has undoubtedly left both traders and patrons with questions and concerns".

A spokesperson added they had told traders they were "diligently working to address the situation and will provide updates as soon as more information becomes available".

Dal Bains sold clothes at the site while his wife, who offered make-up and jewellery, ran one opposite his.

"I've got two kids, I've got a mortgage. I've just bought him a car, my oldest son, who goes to uni," he said.

"We're just hoping that somebody will take it over...that's all we need, just a bit of hope because otherwise I've got 17 years of stock to take and where am I going to put it all?"

Shaz Grant, a part-owner of cosmetics and Caribbean groceries outlets in the Market Village, said: "[There] is a possibility some of us will need to have to go to [a] food bank in the meanwhile, because all our items [are] locked in there."

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