^{Photo (above): In July FoQM and the Traders Union led a demonstration to highlight the ineptitude by Newham Council and it’s ‘well-paid’ private consultant firms.}

Sorry to say “we told you so”, but Newham Council have make a mockery of the public funds meant to help restore Queen’s Market. Over the last few years we have been keeping a close eye on the £7.3million of public funds secured under the Mayor of London, Greater London Authority’s (GLA) ‘Good Growth Fund’, Levelling Up Fund and from Newham Council’s own funds, but sadly there’s little good about it when the funds are in ‘dodgy’ hands.

Friends of Queen’s Market and the Traders Union have put pressure on the Council to explain themselves: they say they will be investigating why the new lights by private consultants have failed to deliver adequate lighting into the market and possibly even poses a public safety risk. Yet, more officer time is being spent on their self-made mess, and some officers are on annual leave during these summer months, which means further delays for the traders!

^{Image (above): sums up any investigation by Newham Council.}

The pigeons have come home to roost

The PIGEON NETTING, meant to stop pigeon has consistently failed to keep pigeons from making home in the inner roof structure, and now the LIGHTING has failed to light up the market! Both cost a whopping £731,000 – that’s for some basic pigeon netting and new lights. This was after the Council spent £116,530 on just removing the pigeon netting. Kerching – looks like a whole bunch of people making a lot of easy money behind the scenes!

400 lights were removed from the market and replaced with just 99 lights. These new lights were suppose to be much brighter and better, but the lighting does not reach the market stalls on the ground.

^{Photos (above): On the left, shows how the new lighting does not even light up the central walkways, and on the right how traders are forced to use their own flood lights to showcase their goods. Thankfully it’s summer and the light wells on the roof help bring some natural light inside, but come winter, it will be a different story say traders and shoppers.}

“It’s a disgrace” says a local shopper “we were led to believe that the £millions will be spent on a much-needed new floor and roof, but it’s just all cheap decorations with no substance – sums up the Council well, I guess.”

“My customers can’t even see what they are buying under these new lights, so I’ve got no choice but to use my flood lights to light up my stall”, saying one trader who sells fashion accessories.

Naveed Choudhary, Chairman of the Traders Union at the market says:” The Council is saying because it’s darker, it will lead drug users away but it’s the opposite way. When it’s bright, less pickpockets and crimes are committed here, because the drugs users will be scared to come inside… they [the Council] are not listening to us.”

The Good Growth funds were suppose to “cocreate” improvements to the market – another waste of public money – where Newham Council created a ‘Newham co-create’ website for £3.1million that many local people do not access, and is accused of being prejudiced towards many local people who are not digital savvy and cannot understand the jargon.

The amount of funds being wasted by Newham Council from the Good Growth Fund is STAGGERING – see the breakdown below:

Have you shone the light onto the finances at Newham Council?
The latest lighting saga is just the tip of the iceberg, of what’s been decades of systemic incompetence and inertia inside Newham Council. Who knows what you find in your investigation…