CRIME-RIDDEN Paddy's Market will be closed down by this autumn.

CRIME-RIDDEN Paddy's Market will be closed down by this autumn.

Glasgow councillors today gave the green light to plans that will see the area transformed into an upmarket centre for arts and crafts shops and foreign food stalls. They agreed to take over the lease of the rundown railway arches from Network Rail.

Traders who operate at the market just now will not have their leases renewed when they expire, as revealed by the Evening Times last week.

Most will be out by May, but it will be autumn before the final lease is up and the market is cleared.

Builders will then move in and carry out a comprehensive facelift of the area which has been a base for traders for almost 200 years.

The move follows complaints about the level of crime reported in and around the Shipbank Lane premises.

Last year the cost of dealing with problems at Paddy's soared to £277,000.

Steve Inch, the city council's executive director of development and regeneration, said: "The area has become the subject of escalating levels of criminality including drugs offences, acts of serious disorder, the sale of stolen property, the sale of counterfeit material and the sale of contraband alcohol and cigarettes.

"Criminal activity and anti-social behaviour related to the Paddy's Market area is considered by the police and Glasgow Community Safety Services to have an extremely detrimental impact on surrounding residential areas.

"All of these issues increase the difficulty of turning round this area and threaten to undermine the investment the council is making in the Merchant City."