Some of the caves underneath the city of Nottingham date back to
the Dark Ages
One of Nottingham's main tourist attractions is to reopen after
being shut for nine months.
The City of Caves, the entrance to which is in the Broadmarsh
Shopping Centre, shut in May as owners Westfield announced plans to revamp the
centre.
But in December, the site was sold to Capital Shopping Centres
(CSC), a move now under an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) probe.
It is hoped the caves will now open in time for February
half-term.
Nicola Burley, director of enterprise and operations for
Egalitarian Trust, the organisation which runs the Caves and the Galleries of
Justice on behalf of Nottingham City Council, said it was a "little
frustrating" the caves had to close at all.
"We have emails from people abroad who want to come to
visit the caves, they attract a lot of visitors," she said.
"We know CSC has taken over, we know negotiations are in
place and don't know any more than that.
"We only closed down because the Broadmarsh entrance was
going to be redone but we have renovated our entrance, in time for reopening in
February."
The City of Caves is part of a complex of up to 400 sandstone
caves dating back to the Dark Ages, the last of which were in use until 1924.
Long-term
plans
On 10 January, the OFT announced it was investigating the
takeover of the Broadmarsh from Westfield by CSC.
In a statement, the OFT said the impact of the merger by CSC,
which also owns Nottingham's Victoria Shopping Centre, was under way.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, from the Centre for Retail Research
in Nottingham, said a decision from the OFT was not expected until September.
"There probably won't be any progress until the beginning
of next year and fixed plans could be another couple of years after that,"
he said.
In March, Westfield submitted plans to Nottingham City Council
for a £500m expansion of the centre.
More than 6,000 jobs were expected to be created as part of the
redevelopment.
The city council, which owns the Broadmarsh lease, has been
planning the redevelopment of the centre for almost two decades.
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