The threat is in the small print in Newham Council’s new planning strategy – it labels the market as a ‘strategic site’
– FoQM
Threats from the planning system have haunted Queen’s Market since 2008. It started with developer St Modwen’s planning application for a tower block and continues today in Newham’s ‘Local Plan’, which calls the market a development site. FoQM keeps a sharp eye on planning matters – here are some of them:
2022
As part of the £5.3 million Good Growth project, the Council has submitted a planning application for temporary workspace built on top of the car park / storage compound outside Hamara Ghar. We object because it is not a permanent solution to employment and will waste Good Growth money, as it would be pulled down if the site is redeveloped. See our objection letter here
2021
Newham’s new ‘Local Plan Issues and Options‘
In December we submitted our response to the proposed new planning policy for the borough of Newham. We have had no feedback since then.
Read our response
Newham’s ‘Statement of Community Involvement‘
This document is the council’s promise to involve the public in decision-making. Newham are no good at doing this ! People find their co-create website very confusing, with a baffling number of consultations being carried out at the same time. Read our response to the SCI
2019
1 March The new Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz held a meeting about the market and we told her our concerns about the Local Plan calling the market a development site. She said her planners would review the Plan and could make changes — Update: this has not happened and the market is still classed as a ‘development site’.
FoQM took part in the Examination in Public of the London Plan speaking about markets, high streets and public spaces.
2018
April We sent a letter to Planning Inspector asking to speak at Local Plan Inquiry, as the Council failed to inform us of it. We wanted to talk about the market as we had done in 2011, and highlighted a sentence that had been added into the Local Plan about the Market site: ’Indicative residential typology – medium density, low family. heights of 8 to 12 storeys with potential for a step-up in height of up to 19 storeys at station and stepping down to the low-rise residential context’.
May The Planning Inspector, on advice from the Council, refused us permission to speak, saying our chance for consultation has been ‘adequate’.
2017
FOQM responded to the Local Plan Review Issues and Options and Issues consultation. Read it here
We were very concerned that Queen’s Market is named Site 27 and still listed as a development site for tall buildings.
2015
18 September: Newham Council finally listed the market as an Asset of Community Value after taking 22 months to make a decision.
We continued the campaign for proper amount of social housing on the Boleyn Ground development. FoQM’s letter to the Council pointed out that the developer’s leaflets and banners prominently featured Queen’s Market traders without their permission. (READ)
UPDATE in 2022: less than 5% of new homes on the former Boleyn ground are for social rent
2014
Friends of Queens Market spoke at City Hall on the importance of markets at the Examination of the Further Alterations of the London Plan (FALP).
Developers Galliard applied to demolish West Ham United’s abandoned Boleyn Ground to build a new housing complex on the site. We started campaigning for 100% social housing there, as the ground was a big part of the local community.
We applied to Newham Council to name the market an Asset of Community Value, part of the Government’s Localism agenda. The usual deciding time for a decision is 8 weeks but we waited 22 MONTHS for a decision by Newham.
A golden snail was sent to Newham Council’s Legal Department. ‘The Golden Snail Award is for the slowest legal department in the United Kingdom’ says secretary Pauline Rowe ‘this legal department is so slow that their delays are actually breaking the law!’
2012
Queen’s Market is described as ‘vibrant and vital’ in the Planning Inspector’s Report 2012.
You heard it from the Big Guy! The report was published on 16th January following his examination of Newham’s ‘Core Strategy’. In his report Inspector Geoffrey Salter commented that the Queen’s Market building was quite sound (though unattractive!) and ‘far from irreparable’. He acknowledged the local fears aroused by the Council’s last scheme to redevelop the market but noted that it had been discarded. Describing the market as ‘vibrant and vital’ he said that in the light of Council promises to retain the market, ‘a scheme for redevelopment or possibly refurbishment would be acceptable’.
Angela Daley, Friends of Queen’s Market Coordinator, commented ‘We are pleased that the Inspector called our market vibrant and vital: we’re glad he flagged up refurbishment as a possible alternative to pulling it down. Now it’s up to shoppers and traders to make their voice heard and safeguard this vital community asset!”
2011
FoQM took part in Newham Council’s ‘Core Strategy’ process – the Core Strategy is the planning policy that will govern the borough. The threat is in the small print: it labels the market a ‘strategic site’ for housing for ‘mixed use’ development. There isn’t room for both the market and housing on the site so this would mean pulling down the existing market. We spoke about this at the Core Strategy Examination in front of a planning inspector.
Read an account of our experience at the Examination
2010
Midlands-based property developers St Modwen who proposed the Asda/Walmart development are forced to leave Queen’s Market – victory for the traders and shoppers!
Good riddance! Property developers St. Modwen pull out of Queen’s Market (July 2010)
St. Modwen Properties have thrown in the towel with their proposed redevelopment of Queen’s Market, East London.
Friends of Queen’s Market Chair, Sasha Laurel, said “It’s a great day for Friends of Queens Market and thousands of ordinary people, including shoppers, residents, shopkeepers, stall holders and the wider BME communities. We fought these property developers for 7 long years to keep our supply of fresh, affordable food, and now our market is saved”.
St. Modwen’s was Newham Council’s preferred developer for a regeneration scheme on the site of the 110 year old traditional London street market. Following a high profile campaign which included the collection of 12,000 signatures to stop the demolition, the anchor supermarket for the development, Asda-Walmart, pulled out in June 2006. This was the Friends of Queen’s Markets’ first victory.
In May 2009 a multi-million pound planning application was submitted by St. Modwen which included a 31 storey high-rise tower block on the market site with a token amount of social housing. The market was scheduled for demolition and local opinion was deeply suspicious of Newham Council’s claim that St. Modwens would rebuild the market and run it as before. This resulted in sustained grass root opposition to the plans from the local community and 2,600 individual letters of objection. Despite this unprecedented response, Newham Council approved the scheme at planning stage. Friends of Queen’s Market then turned to the final authority, the Greater London Assembly, where London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson deemed the development ‘inappropriate’ and threw it out – Friends of Queens Markets’ second success.
A year later, St. Modwen and Newham Council have parted company, claiming that they could not agree about a way forward. Pauline Rowe, Secretary of Friends of Queen’s Market commented “We will be asking a ‘Freedom of Information’ question to find out how much taxpayers money was wasted on this unwanted scheme, which always had the backing of our Mayor Sir Robin Wales.
Also in 2010, Friends of Queens Market took part in the LONDON PLAN process, in a hot seat arranged by the community network Just Space. We and others were suggesting a new separate policy on Markets and spoke at the Examination in Public.
2009
On 13.05.2009 the then London Mayor Boris Johnson and the Greater London Authority REJECT the St. Modwen scheme to demolish Queen’s Market and pile on ‘inappropriate’ 30 storey tower blocks on the historic site – victory for Friends of Queen’s Market and the local people!
July 2008
FoQM received a letter and preliminary report from the Mayor of London’s planning case officer about the St.Modwen scheme. The Mayor’s office recognised the issues in plain terms. The planning report stated at paragraph 64: Policy 3B.l of the London Plan requires that the spatial needs of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and black and minority ethnic businesses be addressed… The Agency therefore welcomes the discussions between the applicant and market traders to agree rent levels… Rent levels should allow existing businesses to trade without proving unviable or requiring substantial costs to be passed onto the consumer. London’s Food Strategy states that wide inequalities exist in terms of the proportion of family spending on food, where food spending for high income households accounts for 6% of total spending compared with 26% for low income households…Affordability should also consider the service charges. As set out in the Economic Development Strategy, a major issue for SMEs is the availability of affordable premises.
Read more on the St.Modwen Story here
To promote and preserve a thriving publicly-owned historic street market 