BBQ trader rehomed six months after market closure

A food business has found a new home six months after it was forced out of a town's popular indoor market when unsafe concrete was discovered there.

Many traders were told to leave Bury Market by the town's council due to the presence of decaying RAAC concrete in the roof in October last year.

Steve Moloney said his BBQ Barn business had been weeks away from financial ruin, until the authority found him a new site at the nearby Mill Gate shopping centre.

He told BBC Radio Manchester he was "more than happy" with the move.

The firm's six months out of business came after the crumbling concrete was found across the entire roof structure of the indoor section of Bury Market.

Bury Council estimates the issue could cost up to £6m to repair.

Mr Moloney said the BBQ Barn had been "very close" to being "financially gone", adding he had been considering using his pension funds to prop it up.

He was one of ten stallholders who Bury Council had initially struggled to find new sites for, with 49 traders affected in total by the market closure.

The 68-year-old said he was about "21 days away from saying to staff, look, I can’t sustain it anymore, I won't be able to pay you."

He had continued to pay wages while the firm did not have a premises.

The BBQ Barn's new home in the Mill Gate shopping centre has "lots more space and cooking facilities", he said.

"It’s up to us to make this site work and make our customers aware now whereabouts we are."

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