Many shoppers and traders at Queen’s Market do not know that the future of the market is under threat. Maybe that’s because there have been two sets of ‘consultations’ on the market future over the last two years. Except that most Newham people were not consulted.
Consultation number one was the Good Growth project with a grant of £5.3 million promising goodies for the market, new floor, new lighting and toilets partly paid for by the GLA. Who can object to that? (The Council have also decided on other uses for most of the money, which nobody had a say about.)
Then, another consultation started around the same time, about the long-term future of the market called the Capacity and Viability Study. For this, there are currently two choices. Option A envisages adding a health centre, library, neighbourhood centre on ground floor and/or roof. Option B adds a youth centre, adult education centre and housing.
There was no question of the public being asked to choose between these two options. And the Council handpicked so-called ‘stakeholders’ to consult, and carefully avoided picking Friends of Queen’s Market nominees. A brief has been passed to the consultants paid to carry out the study. Their report is due to be published in August and go straight to the Cabinet to decide in October some time. [update: this hasn’t happened yet]
The Council keeps saying ‘there will always be a market’? But what do these consultations say about their real agenda? And what do we need to do? Read on.
We say you can’t have extra building on the market ground floor without pulling down shops or closing the stalls and shops we value. We suspect that the real agenda is to build expensive luxury housing on the site. There will be talk of housing for people on the housing list but hey – remember the 842 new homes built on the former West Ham ground? There are only 39 at social rent levels!
But all this consultation on the market’s future has been done in a confusing way. First people were asked to choose via the website between five options for the market, one was ‘maintain only’ i.e the Council does all the maintenance work that you would expect of a good landlord but no alteration to existing stalls, shops, kiosks. Friends of Queen’s Market created a paper version of the survey and got responses from people in and around the market don’t do computers. The results found an overwhelming preference for ‘maintenance only’.
More confusion! In July 2021 the Council’s report which summarised the online consultation findings concluded that there was ‘no overall preference’ for any of the options. This despite accepting our paper survey which clearly showed a preference. The Council then promised that there would be ‘modelling’ of the five options. But – then they changed to the two options above and they even changed the name of the study group looking into the long-term future of the market (from ‘Capacity and Viability’ to ‘Investment strategy’)
Meanwhile whatever happened to the Good Growth goodies – toilet floor and lighting? Well the Council spent two years form January 2020 to December 2021 consulting on this. This was being done at the same time as the other consultation on the ‘options’ so many people who don’t have the time to follow every twist and turn of Council policy got thoroughly confused.
Now suddenly the council is appointing contractors to do the building work to deliver these goodies. Without a word of consultation to traders or shoppers about how the building works will proceed.
What is going on? Whatever happened to transparency? Friends of Queen’s Market are demanding that we are all told: when will these works start/ What materials will be used for flooring and lighting? Will there be a toilet attendant and free toilets or will the toilets be expensive and smelly and neglected like the existing toilets? Will our beloved market be turned into a building site? For how long? Will shops and stalls be closed?
WATCH THIS SPACE! SUPPORT FRIENDS OF QUEEN’S MARKET! SIGN OUR LATEST PETITION!
Current FoQM petition: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/respect-and-protect-queen-s-market
Above: An extract from a campaigner’s leaflet that is critical of JA Projects, the same consultants used by Newham Council for Queen’s Market. OnRedchurch, a dodgy developer-friendly outfit has damaged the Redchurch Street area of East London with extreme gentrification, so much so that long-standing local businesses were pushed out through overnight rent hikes… an indication of what might happen in Newham. These consultants couldn’t care less!
To promote and preserve a thriving publicly-owned historic street market 