The House of Lords has rejected the City of London’s opposition to the government’s decision to allow face-to-face trading of meat and fish at New Covent Garden Market.
The City of London’s director of markets, David Smith declined to comment but Stanley Ginsburg, chairman of the City of London’s Markets committee issued a statement declaring he was “naturally disappointed with this result” but highlighted it was only a narrow victory for Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA), allowing it only some freedom as to what it could do with its land surplus.
He said: “While we are disappointed at the result, their Lordships stated that this judgement gave only limited rights to the sale of meat and fish at New Covent Garden.
“The City of London welcomes this endorsement of the rights of our traders at Billingsgate and Smithfield. Billingsgate and Smithfield are internationally renowned as the key markets for fish and meat, respectively, and we are confident that this reputation be safeguarded long into the future.”
Covent Garden Market Authority has welcomed the opportunity to expand its product focus and render itself a more appealing food source for London’s caterers.
Baroness Brenda Dean, chairman of the authority, said: “This is an important breakthrough for London’s thriving restaurants, caterers and food retailers who have, until now, been prevented from choosing all their own purchases directly.
“This decision by the highest court in the land will greatly assist in enhancing London’s reputation for first class, high-quality cuisine and catering. With the Olympics in London this will become even more important,” said Dean, pictured.
“The authority always believed that the government’s original decision to allow face-to-face trading of meat and fish at New Covent Garden Market was correct. This decision had been challenged and it is a relief to be able to put the distractions - and costly delay - of this case behind us.”
While admitting this venture is unlikely to affect New Spitalfields market directly, chief executive of its market tenants’ association, Jim Heppel, said he hoped it will set a favourable precedent for change.
“The tenants at Spitalfields would like a level playing field,” he claimed. “I’m not saying they want to sell meat and fish but some of them would like to sell products other than fresh fruit and veg. At the moment our by-laws state that we can only sell horticultural products and eggs.”
