The future of Kingston’s Grade II-listed Market House has been thrown into doubt after town centre management firm Kingstonfirst announced it wants to give up control of the building.

The company has told Kingston Council it no longer wishes to operate Market House and will hand the responsibility back to the authority by April 1, 2014.

The plan came to light as Kingstonfirst prepares its third Business Improvement District (BID) application to continue managing the town centre beyond its current agreement of December 2014.

But the move has been criticised by current and former councillors.

Conservative councillor David Cunningham said: “The council handed it over to them on the basis that they said they had more expertise to run it.

“At the time that sounded reasonable – the council does not have any expertise or entrepreneurship in running the Market House.

“I wasn’t at all impressed to be told it’s suddenly being handed back.

“But I also think the council needs to be more proactive about what it does with the Market House.

"It’s a nugget in the centre of Kingston and I think there’s a lot of scope to do something with it to make it an asset in the town.

"The administration seems to just be sitting back, letting Kingstonfirst hand it back to them and there is no plan for what they are going to do with it."

Former Labour councillor Steve Mama was at the meeting last week when the plans were revealed, and was critical of Kingstonfirst’s ability to manage the town centre.

He said: “I think it’s an absolute hash. When I was a member of the council I remember Kingstonfirst fighting tooth and nail to manage Market House.

"They called it the jewel in the crown.

"Now we find this report without any justification or explanation saying they want to give it up.

"I think they have miscalculated, they thought it would bring in a lot of money but it hasn’t.

"You would think Kingstonfirst would give reasons for wanting to hand it back but this report certainly doesn’t."

Kingstonfirst chief executive Ros Morgan said: “We are very proud to have facilitated more than 2,000 community events in Market House since Kingstonfirst re-opened it to the public when it might otherwise have remained closed.

“The market place redevelopment is well underway and we’re looking forward to its completion in March.

“With phase two of the redevelopment being discussed we feel that March will be the appropriate time to hand the building back to Kingston Council to facilitate and progress these plans.

"Ultimately what Kingstonfirst would like to see is one of the most significant buildings in the town centre to be open and accessible to the public on a day to day basis and we believe that phase two will allow this to happen."

To read the report click here