Council accused of playing ‘Hunger Games’ with local people’s lives

Friends of Queen’s Market (FoQM) would like to wish all our supporters a Happy New Year. We hope 2026 brings healthier choices, stronger communities, and many visits to Queen’s Market for fresh fruit and vegetables.

Newham Local Plan under review

Newham Council’s Local Plan is currently being examined by a UK Government Planning Inspector to assess whether it is “sound”. In principle, this process should ensure that local people’s needs, voices, and aspirations are fully reflected. In practice, many residents fear that decisions are being shaped behind closed doors, with private developers exerting disproportionate influence. Local people are left asking: how transparent are these discussions, and have all interests been properly declared? Public land and public assets should serve the public good – not be treated as commodities for private gain.

As one local resident put it, these suited decision-makers often behave as though local land and communities are theirs to dispose of. That mindset must be challenged.

FoQM raised serious concerns about wording within the Local Plan that threatens the future of Queen’s Market. Ambiguous language, buried deep in planning documents, could allow redevelopment that undermines the market’s social, cultural, and economic role.

^{PHOTO (top): on a cold blistering morning, ardent supporters and Friends of Queen’s Market demonstrate outside the hyper-corporate 1000 Dockside (another waste of public money – see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24205638), to stick up for local needs before private greed.}

Growing frustration with Council conduct

FoQM and other community groups increasingly experience a lack of respect and transparency from the Council. There has been persistent vagueness about the market’s future, combined with reports of heavy-handed enforcement by market inspectors.

Residents are entitled to expect professionalism and accountability from public officers whose salaries are paid through public funds.

One long-standing mother with 3 kids said:

“For Goodness sake, the Council has the entire borough to play with. They have the whole post-2012 Olympic site in Stratford where luxury flats already dominate. Why are they so determined to destroy a historic community street market instead?”

“If council officers want high-end shopping, it’s only 15 minutes away by bus. Why threaten something that generations of families rely on and love?”

Newham’s financial crisis raises serious questions

Recent reports that Newham Council was on the brink of bankruptcy are deeply concerning. For the 2025/26 financial year, Newham received £51.2 million in Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from central government.

This raises legitimate questions about governance, financial decision-making, and accountability. At a time of severe cuts to services, residents are right to ask how money is being managed and whose interests are being prioritised.

Related coverage:

• ‘We’re broke…’ – Newham Voices (01/2026):
  https://newhamvoices.co.uk/2026/01/09/2025-were-broke-but-still-cheerful/
• ‘Crisis: Bankrupt London borough signs off £230k payment to chief exec in secret meeting’ – Evening Standard (07/2025):
  https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/london-council-newham-meeting-concerning-allegations-b1238719.html
• ‘Council boss running “bankrupt” local authority paid £1,500 per day’ – Daily Mail (08/2025):
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15028637/Council-boss-running-bankrupt-local-authority.html
• ‘£175 million cuts. Official!’ – Open Newham:
  https://www.opennewham.co.uk/newham-cut-45m-from-services-3

When councils cut services, it is local people who suffer first – and local assets are often stripped away. Queen’s Market remains a vital lifeline: providing affordable food, clothing, and jobs for Newham’s diverse and growing population.

“Queen’s Market is affordable, welcoming, and essential. My neighbours from Stratford and my cousins from Essex shop here. We know the traders – they know us.

I don’t want over-wrapped, plastic-heavy supermarket food. Here I can touch the freshness of what I eat and feed my family properly. I also buy fabric to make clothes — the haberdashery here is unmatched.”

– local shopper who shops at Queen’s Market for 3 generations of his family

Read BBC article ‘How microplastics are infiltrating the food you eat’ [01/2023] on dangers of plastic getting into our food:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20230103-how-plastic-is-getting-into-our-food

^{IMAGE (above): Source: medium.com/Lorenzo Viglietti}

“The devil is in the detail”

The Local Plan contains language that appears neutral but may enable damaging outcomes. Terms like “affordable” and “retain” are frequently used in planning while meaning the opposite in practice – housing that people cannot afford, or demolition framed as preservation.

This echoes the English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic George Orwell’s warnings about political language. George Orwell viewed the changing, degradation, and intentional manipulation of language as a direct threat to intellectual freedom and democracy. He argued that when words lose their precise meaning, or are intentionally redefined to mean their opposite, they become tools for authoritarian control, enabling political “doublespeak” that masks reality. His most significant analysis on this topic is found in his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” and his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

^{PHOTO (above): Recent hoardings in Queen’s Square (also known as Hamara Ghar Square) promote “digital inclusion”, despite the Council knowing that its Co-create website has excluded thousands of local residents and wasted £3.1 million of public money.}

FoQM and local supporters must navigate this complex planning terrain to prevent demolition and privatisation of Queen’s Market.

Have your say: Local Plan Examination

📍 Newham Council Offices, 1000 Dockside, E16 2QE
🚆 Nearest station: Royal Albert DLR

🗓 Thursday 22 January, from 2:00 pm
📌 Focus: Newham’s policy on Markets

More information on the Local Plan Examination:
https://www.newham.gov.uk/planning-development-conservation/newham-local-plan-examination

FoQM is calling for the removal of the Tall Buildings Zone designation, which would allow towers of up to 50 metres above Queen’s Market and Hamara Ghar. This directly contradicts other stated planning policies and must be corrected.

^{PHOTO (above): Highly corporate (dull), energy guzzler, over-budget, over-securitised – Newham Council offices at 1000 Dockside. Locals feel “locked out” of decision-making inside the London Borough of Newham.}

Are local people being forced to just “survive”?

^{Image (above): Newham’s residents are increasingly seeing themselves in a dystopic episode of The Hunger Games}

The Hunger Games (Book and film by author: Suzanne Collins) depicts a society where people must struggle, compete, and comply just to survive – while those in power remain insulated from the consequences.

Is this what life is becoming for Newham’s residents? A borough where communities are sidelined, essential assets threatened, and voices ignored?

FoQM believes Newham deserves better – and we will continue to stand up for Queen’s Market, for transparency, and for the people who make this borough what it is.

^{PHOTO (Above): Bureaucracy and red tape – Friends of Queen’s Market give counter evidence to the Planning Inspectorate on the importance of safeguarding Queen’s Market.}