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The demolition of Caerphilly’s former indoor market has begun in earnest to make way for a £21 million development led by housing association Linc Cymru.

While initial work in Pentrebane Street started in March this year, disconnecting utilities and making the site safe, workers are now on site pulling the almost 100-year-old building down.

In its place will be a complex of 72 flats – which will be a mix of open market sale, private rent and social housing; seven commercial units; and open public spaces.

The project is one of a number that comes under the Caerphilly 2035 redevelopment plan.

This includes Ffos Caerffili – the container-style market that was mooted as a ‘replacement’ for the original indoor market.

Back in 2022, traders at the Pentrebane Street building were left with uncertainty over their futures after being told they were being kicked out to make way for the new complex.

Two of the traders – Castle Tackle and Bait and Upmarket Family Butchers – managed to secure places at the new market but have since left.

According to Land Registry documents seen by Caerphilly Observer, Caerphilly County Borough Council paid a total of £1,331,000 for the old indoor market.

In other documents relating to the property, previous owners Westway Properties – which is registered offshore in Belize – paid just £155,000 plus VAT for it in June 2010.

The council also spent £520,000 on the former Manhattan Kitchen and Thai Tulip Café buildings.

Around £6m of funding for the scheme has come via the Welsh Government.

Cllr Jamie Pritchard, deputy leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council, said: “The demolition of the old market at Pentrebane Street will create housing, open space, and a healthy mix of commercial and retail units. This will allow more people to live and work in our town.”

He added: “This project will go some way towards injecting some vibrancy into the area, so we look forward to getting on with the job.”

Grant Prosser, head of development east at Pobl Group, which is behind Linc Cymru, said the project is “about creating a place where people can live well, feel connected, and be part of a thriving community.”

Residents and visitors are advised that safety measures and traffic management will be in place during the demolition to minimise disruption, but there are no planned road closures.

The old Indoor Market

The Pentrebane Street building, which also encompassed the former Checkmate/Pulsars nightclub, is an eyesore that needed investment.

The market was dealt a huge blow in the 1990s when Castle Court Shopping Centre was opened. Woolworths and Boots – two big high street names at the time – moved to the new development. Footfall declined as a result and the market eventually closed with plans for a skate park never materialising.

In 2010 it reopened, but never regained the popularity it once had – a victim perhaps of changing consumer behaviour.

Many of the former traders lay some of the blame for the market’s recent problems at the door of the council.

At the time its closure was announced, they argued on-street parking restrictions had deterred customers and that the local authority had put “obstacles” in the way of the previous owners – the offshore based Westway Properties – turning the upper floors into flats.

The market closed its doors for the last time in January 2023.

The design of the new complex has also provoked criticism, with the Plaid Cymru group leader on Caerphily Council, Lindsay Whittle, comparing it to a Lego set.

Questions have also been raised over whether the housing would go to local people.

In response to this, Caerphilly Council, back in March, said future occupiers would be selected in line with established policies.

“For those properties on site that are allocated for social housing, then Linc will look to offer them to those who are on Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Common Housing Register,” a council spokesperson explained.

“These allocations will be made in accordance with the council’s Common Allocations Policy which outlines the criteria for local connection consideration.”

Under that policy, the council assesses each applicant and places them into one of five bands, based on their housing need.

Within each band, applicants are ordered based on the date they joined the waiting list, and also their “local connection”.

“People with a proven local connection will be afforded a greater level of priority over people without a local connection within their respective band, irrespective of time and date order,” the council states in its policy.

“Local connection” includes being “clearly settled in the area” in six months of the past year, or for three of the past five years.

It may also include working in the county borough, having family already living here, or having “special circumstances” such as requiring Caerphilly-based medical treatment.

Serving or recent Armed Forces members, or their bereaved partners, who lived previously in the county borough also qualify as having a “local connection”, under the council policy.