In an age of misinformation and ‘fake news’ we have had our supporters look through the endlessly changing promises being made by Newham Council and their private consultants. It appears they want to duplicate the Queen’s Road West Community Centre located just 5 minutes away. There’s also talk of a Library when we already have one 3 minutes walk away, and finally Newham Council keep saying that they have successful markets but when we visited Rathbone Market in Canning Town – a shadow of it’s former self – it’s only got a handful of stalls and no fresh fruit of vegetables in sight- so much for Newham Council’s Health & Wellbeing Strategy!
Had Newham Council consulted local people properly then good practical ideas might emerge. Instead their top-down approach takes ‘off the peg’ ideas that nobody needs and is a waste of public funds and time of the public officers- who knows what kind of public service they provide in those shiny offices!
Photos above: Rathbone Market is Canning Town has sadly turned into a carpark to serve the luxury flat owners overlooking the site. The atmosphere is dire. The market only contains a handful of stalls with priority given to multi-national brands… we don’t want to see this for the historic Queen’s Market.
‘Old lamps for new’ shouted the peddler in the Aladdin story – we’re not trading in our historic and diverse street market for a privatised new one with luxury flats that nobody can afford!
Don’t be fooled by the offers given by Newham Council- we have found that their offers and dangling fruits change depending on the situation they are in! The “old lamps for new” refers to the sneaky way a magical lamp was taken in the story of Aladdin in exchange for a shiny new ordinary lamp. Don’t be short-changed! Shop at the market!
To promote and preserve a thriving publicly-owned historic street market 