George Bray, chairman of the Western International Market Tenants’ Association (WIMTA), was presented with a crystal decanter to mark 10 years in the post this week.
Bray, pictured centre, was handed the memento by vice chairman, Bob Smith, right, and wife Sue. He has overseen a decade of negotiations over the construction of a new market site, a development which it is still hoped could be finalised by the end of 2006.
WIMTA also used its Christmas lunch to present cheques to two charities. The association gave £1,500 to Ealing Hospital Children's Ward and £1,000 to the WIM Benevolent Fund.
• Bray has also assumed the chairmanship of the London Markets Committee for 2005, a position vacated by Daniel Caspi of the Corporation of London after his year in office. Andrew Sugarman, chairman of the tenants’ association at Borough Market, will be Bray’s vice chairman.
Caspi said: “I wish George all the best for the coming year in what is obviously a very sensitive time for London’s wholesale markets.”
The Corporation, as well as tenants at its markets and those at New Covent Garden, await with interest the results of a judicial inquiry into the decision to allow the face-to-face wholesaling of meat and fish at NCG.
They are expected next week and depending on the outcome, this could bring to an end a period of relative stalemate surrounding the possible sale of the Nine Elms site by Defra.
