{"id":623286,"date":"2025-12-10T02:24:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/623286\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T02:24:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:24:20","slug":"council-closes-down-kirkby-toy-shop-two-weeks-before-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/623286\/","title":{"rendered":"Council closes down Kirkby toy shop two weeks before Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Taylor has had a stall in Kirkby Market for the last 37 years\"DavidDavid Taylor, owner of Dave’s Toys in Kirkby Market(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

A popular Merseyside market trader has seen his stall closed down two weeks before Christmas, after nearly 40 years of serving his local community. David Taylor runs Dave’s Toys, a much-loved shop in Kirkby<\/a> Market. He said he was issued with a termination notice by Knowsley<\/a> Council for his market stall last week.<\/p>\n

The Liverpool ECHO<\/a> spoke to Dave on Monday (December 9) as he was packing up his stall, and moving his stock into a van in the car park, he said: “This is a life’s work that I’m taking down today. You can’t pick a worse time to be kicked off the market<\/a> for a toy shop.<\/p>\n

“It has knocked the wind out of me and I just can’t understand it. The management<\/a> just phoned me and said they have terminated my licence, just like that.”<\/p>\n

The ECHO<\/a> understands that Dave was served the termination notice after his staff and his stall became embroiled in a dispute with another trader. We have been told there are claims on both sides of the argument, with witnesses to corroborate them – and that there is some disquiet about how the investigation was handled by the management.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Taylor, owner of Dave’s Toys in Kirkby Market, moving out of his shop(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

Knowsley Council<\/a> purchased Kirkby Town Centre in 2019, and also manage the market. A spokesperson for the council said: \u201cFollowing a series of incidents involving the proprietor and an employee of Dave\u2019s Toy Shop at Kirkby Market, the council has taken the decision to terminate the trading license for this stall.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll traders at Kirkby Market are bound by a Code of Practice which clearly sets out regulations and expectations for traders and their employees, including standards of behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs there has been more than one serious breach of the Code of Practice involving Mr Taylor and his employees in the past few months, his trading licence has been reviewed and terminated in line with processes set out in the Code of Practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not take the suspension or termination of a trading licence lightly, but as operators of the Market, the Council has a duty of care to safeguard all traders, members of the public and our own staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ECHO<\/a> understands there was one other, separate incident, reported earlier this year and involved a dispute between Dave and the management. This involved an argument about the use of space around Dave’s stall, resulting in a warning notice being issued.<\/p>\n

Dave said he had witnesses willing to back his version of events about the latest incident, but added they had not been approached during the investigation into the claims against him and his staff member. He added: “To take the nuclear option, and take away my livelihood away over an argument, after 30-odd years, I can’t tell you how I’m feeling, I can’t put it into words.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Taylor, owner of Dave’s Toys in Kirkby Market, moving out of his shop(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

“You can’t be on 37 years on a market and be a trouble-causer, especially a toy store, it cannot be like that, you wouldn’t survive.”<\/p>\n

In light of the termination of Dave’s licence, the ECHO<\/a> received an email from another trader, who wanted to remain anonymous, claiming traders and customers are ‘baffled and disgusted’ by the situation and believe further investigation is needed.<\/p>\n

They added: “Dave has been trading for 37 years on the market. Is loved and adored by all his customers and cared and respected by his fellow traders. To take his business away from him at Christmas time is deplorable and cruel.”<\/p>\n

Dave’s main worry is the Christmas Club he has run for the last few years, where parents pay in money over the course of the year, and then use the credit to buy presents in December, adding: “With what’s happened, everyone will now get their money back and I am already in contact with them.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people have messaged us showing support because they said [the shop] was such a good thing for the community. I feel really bad about it all, and little kids have come in crying and asking why we’re not going to be here anymore.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Taylor has had a stall in Kirkby Market for the last 37 yearsDavid Taylor, owner of Dave’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,21515,458,41030,179,456,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-623286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-kirkby","12":"tag-knowsley","13":"tag-knowsley-council","14":"tag-liverpool","15":"tag-real-lives","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115692901107888754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}