Three London Markets

3 London Markets

AHDA’s campaign spearheaded by Chris Gannaway, began immediately, joining with a number of local resident’s associations and arranging a meeting on site with Keith Prince. As a result of this meeting Keith Prince withdrew his support as shown in the tweet below.

On 25 Mar 2019, Redbridge organised a Drop in event at St Peter’s Church to inform residents about the proposal to bring three London Markets – Billingsgate, New Spitalfields and Smithfield to the green belt of Fairlop Plain on Hainault and Red House Farms on Billet Road and Hainault Road.

Over 150 residents attended. They came from Aldborough Hatch, Newbury Park, Little Heath, Billet Road, Chadwell Heath, Seven Kings and Loughton.

Members of the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association (AHDA) sat outside asking those leaving for their reactions. Ron reported that all except four were fervently against the plan. Some were incandescent with rage at the inadequate responses they received from Council Officers. Resident after resident told me (Ron) that, in their opinion, the Officers did not seem to know anything about the green belt of Redbridge, lived outside the Borough, had never visited the area before and were totally unable to answer simple questions about the road traffic and environmental concerns.

A Public Meeting that the AHDA staged at St. Peter’s Church Halls on Friday 5th April at 8pm to hear the views of residents and to plan the way forward in opposing this fiasco was very well attended with standing room only by 8.05pm.

In Jun 2019, Redbridge heard that their bid had been unsuccessful and the London Corporation decided that the 3 markets would go to Barking & Dagenham.

Wes Streeting’s Pledge to defend Redbridge Green Belt 17 May 2019

On 5 Jul 2019 The East London & West Essex reported: A council has been accused of “ignoring residents’ feedback” when it submitted a bid to house three famous London markets. The council conducted a public consultation on the issue. Now, information from a Freedom of Information request submitted by Mr Parekh has revealed the majority of responses to the consultation were in opposition to the bid. Of the 64 responses, 67 per cent were against the proposals. Only six per cent of respondents stated they supported the proposals completely. Eight per cent indicated they supported the proposals “with reservations”.

A total of 11 per cent of respondents also indicated they had “some concerns” about the suggestions. In a separate question, 30 per cent stated they saw “no benefits” to the bid or the idea of rehousing the three markets within the borough. At a full council meeting on June 20, Mr Parekh presented a petition launched by resident Chris Gannaway against the three markets bid which gathered more than 3,300 signatures.

Mr Parekh said: “I am left perplexed at how these responses helped in shaping a “strong, credible proposal” as mentioned by Cllr Athwal. He continued: “At the council meeting on June 20, in response to my speech for the petition to debate on this matter which had more than 3,300 signatures opposing the three markets development, Cllr Athwal said that he makes ‘no apology’ for seeking to bring the three markets to Redbridge. “It seems that he is ignoring residents’ feedback and doing what he sees fit.”