BRADFORD Council is set to look at proposals to relocate St James’s Wholesale Market next week – with the cost of the move mooted to be in excess of £30 million.

The Council has said it wants to move the wholesale market, which has been running since 1874, as the site off Essex Street could become the Bradford stop on Northern Powerhouse Rail, and create a “regional food hub”.

The site was chosen from a list of potential sites for the station, but doubt has been cast over whether Bradford will get a stop on the NPR line after the Prime Minister did not answer when asked to guarantee if there would be on the high-speed train route.

Bradford Council’s executive will be considering the future of St James’s Market next week as plans get underway to move it to a site at least double the size elsewhere in the city.

It has been estimated that the construction costs of a new market will cost the Council £30 million – excluding the potential purchase price and clearance costs of the land – plus a further £3m of design and management fees.

The wholesale market is home to 32 businesses employing more than 400 people and generating £50 million in turnover, but it’s small size and low turnover of tenants means it is unable to expand.

The Council want to move the market to somewhere else in the city to make way for an NPR station, and also to allow the market to expand and become a “regional hub” for food trade, creating more jobs and turnover for local people.

However, no sites have yet been identified for where the market could be moved to, and it looks set to cost the public purse £250,000 just to confirm whether the project would be financially viable and to find a suitable plot of land.

Expanding the market could allow Bradford to “excel in the food distribution industry”, the report says, supplying retail and hospitality firms across the North with fresh ingredients.

The new site would need to be in excess of 16 acres, double the size of the existing site, and Council officers will have to scour publicly and privately-owned land to find somewhere suitable, and leaving it in its current location is “not an option” due to the crucial need for an NPR stop in Bradford for the district’s economic future.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said: “This is an extremely exciting time for wholesale markets and Bradford could become a regional leader in the sale and distribution of fresh food and vegetables.

“These proposals present the district with an exciting opportunity to build on over 150 years of tradition and could also attract significant investment and jobs to our area.”

It’s being recommended that when the Council’s Executive meets on July 6 they approve the St James’s Market relocation and £250k site search and feasibility study.