Norwich Livestock Market Bill lodged with parliament

If passed, the bill will allow Norwich City Council to relocate the market from the Hall Road site where it has been based since 1960, to outside the city boundary. 

This is due to the extensive repair work required at the existing site and a lack of financially viable alternatives within the city's reach. 

City Hall needs parliament to make it law before it can move the market (Image: Chris Hill) The bill proposes then that the new market must take place within 16 miles of the Hall Road site, on at least 5.5 acres of land, It must also be within three miles of a major road, such as the A47 or the A11.

It would also give City Hall the power to incorporate adjoining land into a new site and carry over any rules or regulations from the current market. 

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The new bill has not yet been addressed in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords but was deposited for discussion last week. 

HALL ROAD HISTORY

The cattle market was held where Castle Quarter is now located from the 17th century until 1960.

Since then it has been trading on a site close to Hall Road and is now one of the last trading markets in East Anglia. 

There has been a livestock market in the city for hundreds of years (Image: Archant Library) Entrepreneur Graham Dacre bought the site from the council in 2010 but leased part of it back to City Hall for its continued use as a livestock market.

The Hall Road site has more recently been troubled by protestors who have been demonstrating at the market over the last few years.

The anti-meat activists have blocked trucks from entering the site and there have been angry exchanges and arrests on both sides, with protestors and farmers accusing one another of intimidation.