COVERED Market traders in Oxford have called for their rents to rise in line with inflation – nearly 10 times less than the figure the city council wants to impose.

The council, which runs the market, is proposing putting up the majority of tenants’ rents, some by as much as 70 per cent.

The rent review takes place every five years and negotiations between traders and the council began last year.

Last month compromise talks collapsed, and the issue will now be handled by an independent arbitrator.

Chris Farren, head of the Covered Market Traders’ Association, who pays £33,000 a year rent, said the CMTA’s submission to the arbitrator would be that traders should pay no more than a 7.5 per cent increase.

He said: “That would be reasonable because that would be in line with inflation over the past five years.

“We take advice and employ very reputable professional agents to advise on the matter of rent, so why should the efficacy of our experts’ opinion of rent be any less value than that of the council?

“Property consultants have told us that rents in general throughout Oxford have not increased over the past five years, they have steadily gone down because of the dire state of the retail trade.

“There are 53 tenants and well over 60 per cent are being asked to pay a rent increase of 60 per cent, with some traders facing a 70 per cent increase. Business rates are linked to the rent you pay, so if you get a 50 per cent rent increase then in two years’ time you could face a 50 per cent increase in business rates. We are not talking insignificant amounts.”

Rents will now be decided by an arbitrator at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Last year one in six businesses in the market, which dates back to 1774, said they were looking to sell up. Traders have launched a petition which can be found online at ipetitions.com/petition/save-the- covered-market and so far nearly 7,000 people have signed online with the goal being 20,000 supporters.

Mr Farren, 70, who has run The Cake Shop, a family business for 26 years, said: “About 1,000 people have also signed a paper petition and we hope they will help our case.”

The city council’s executive member for the city centre Colin Cook said: “Some tenants’ rents have been negotiated separately from the arbitration process.

“The majority of traders will have their cases dealt with by arbitration, unless they settle with the council beforehand.”

The creation of Oxford’s Covered Market was intended to rid the city’s streets of “untidy, messy and unsavoury stalls”.

Street markets in Fish Street, now St Aldate’s, and Butcher Row, which is now Queen Street, were stopped by the Oxford Mileways Act 1771.John Gwynn, the architect behind Magdalen Bridge, drew up the plans and designed the High Street front with its four entrances.