THE council has refused to say how much it is still owed by a firm that missed £200,000 in payments for running the city’s markets.

LSD Promotions, which had run Worcester’s popular Victorian Christmas Fayre from 2015 until 2021, owed Worcester City Council hundreds of thousands of pounds in missed licensing fees in exchange for staging the showpiece city event.

The city council will only say that it has a “commercially sensitive arrangement” with LSD Promotions which is “being implemented” and it is “satisfied” with the agreed terms - but will not say how much has been paid off or when it expects to have recuperated the money.

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The fayre, which has around 200 stalls attracting 150,000 people and bringing in an estimated £7 million for the local economy, has continued to grow in popularity but despite the rise in visitors, the council was still owed money by the market and event operator.

In 2020, LSD Promotions, which was also responsible for running the city centre’s weekly markets, said it could not hand over the money because of “operational difficulties” causing a drop in income.

LSD had even asked for one of two £88,000 payments to host the city’s Christmas fayre to be scrapped because it had been “citing operational difficulties for some time.”

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Financial reports showed that LSD, which has run events and markets across the West Midlands for more than 30 years, still owed the money for the two December fayres in 2018 and 2019 as well as money for running several markets in the city centre.

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LSD still runs markets in Kidderminster and other parts of the West Midlands as well as food festivals in other parts of the county including Bewdley and Stourport.

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Council bosses set aside £100,000 in the 2020/21 budget to cover part of the debt while striking a deal with LSD over repayments.

Cotswolds Markets was chosen as the new market operator in Worcester when LSD’s contract expired in 2021.

The firm has since hosted the last two Victorian Fayres and will again run the popular festival this December.

Cotswolds Markets also runs the Angel Place market and twice-monthly events in Worcester High Street.

City councillors will discuss the Angel Place market at a meeting in the Guildhall on Monday (March 13).