New tenants’ association chairman Chris Hutchinson made his inaugural speech in the role, as the The Lord Mayor of London Robert Finch visited New Spitalfields on Wednesday.
He wasted no time in airing the views of the association on the London markets position. He expressed his intention to continue the close working relationship with the market’s landlord, the Corporation of London, adding: “I am pleased to learn from my landlords that there are ongoing consultations between the Corporation and the government regarding the future, and in particular the acquisition of Covent Garden market.”
However, he added: “If the Corporation acquires NCG from the government and if the Corporation were able to get the right sale price for Billingsgate, there would be a choice of where to relocate the fish market...both Spitalfields and NCG would like it to be relocated to their respective sites.
“In the last 13 years, since we have been here at Temple Mills, we have seen steady growth in trade in a fully occupied fruit and vegetable market. In that same period at Nine Elms, Covent Garden has become hardly recognisable as a wholesale fruit and vegetable market, with many traders going out of business, and major areas of the site laying vacant or being used by alternative industries.
“This, in my opinion, has nothing to do with personality,” Hutchinson said. “The tenants of NCG are professional tradesmen; they are simply in the wrong place for a wholesale market, whether it be fruit and vegetables or any other transportable commodity. Good road links on the periphery of a major city is the recipe for success - that is the case throughout Europe and London is no different.”
