London’s market tenants are digging their heels in over the city’s congestion charge and stepping up efforts to force an exemption for the food trade.
The charge was recently increased to £8 a day and last week the extension of the zone westwards was top of the agenda at a meeting of the Association of London Markets (ALM), which counts representatives of London’s four fresh produce markets as well as Smithfield and Billingsgate among its members.
The ALM, which is chaired by Western International Market Tenants Association president George Bray, formed a congestion charge sub-group, at its meeting last week, which will spearhead initiatives on this issue.
“Our aim for the markets is that there should be an exception for the food industry,” said Bray. “The congestion charge is not good for the economy and it is worse with an extension out west, as indeed it would be whichever way it’s extended.
“It is very worrying for our industry as we employ lots of people who travel at times that are not affected by congestion. With the formation of this sub-group we will be considering our options.”
Bray is joined on the sub-group by Simone Crofton, chief executive of the trustees of Borough Market, Robert Wilson, superintendent at Smithfield Market and Gary Marshall, chairman of the tenants’ association at New Covent Garden.
“We opposed the congestion charge from the outset and have written several letters to Transport for London and have only just received a reply,” said Marshall. “Because we are servicing London, we are being penalised. It is having a massive effect on the market: we have seen restaurants close, yet TfL’s 400-page report carried out over 18 months claims there have been no adverse affects. We need an independent report on the situation.”
Marshall believes the key to success for the food industry will be unity. “The time has come to do something of importance and unite meat, fish, bakery and fruit and vegetable suppliers. We want to involve the Fresh Produce Consortium as well as the trade associations for the other trades. The charge is ludicrous for our industry as we are making deliveries outside the congestion charge time limit and are being penalised as the vast majority of our trucks are paying for exiting, not entering, the congestion zone.”
Borough tenants leader Andrew Sugarman points to the impact on employees. “We are the only [fruit and veg] market within the zone and it is costing our staff £40 a week more to get here now when there is no alternative transport to get them into work in time,” said Sugarman. “It has had a massive impact and it is not fair. We serve a lot of greengrocers and they have been less busy since the charge came in. Therefore so have we.”
There seems to be little hope of exemption for market workers or the sector: “There is quite a history to the market workers issue and their call for entitlement to residents’ discounts or special exemption has been rejected,” said a TfL spokesman. “We appreciate their circumstances but if we start having specific rules for different groups it makes the scheme difficult to enforce.”
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