I’m sure he recognises the irony as much as he feels the frustration, but Leif Mills leaves his post as chairman of the CGMA at a time when Defra finally appears to have taken the first tentative steps towards disposal of the Nine Elms site.

Through no fault of his own, Mills’s seven-year term has seen much discussion and, at times, signs of real progress in the interminable hunt for a new owner. But let’s all hope that his successor Brenda Dean has not broken any mirrors lately and tenants and their customers are not left itching for a further seven years while nothing concrete takes place.

That Mills’s parting shot was a full-on endorsement of his constant sparring partners at the Corporation of London as the next owner would surprise many. Beneath the legal rancour, however, there has always been a widespread recognition that this would be the most likely scenario - that it was never publicly aired was more political than adversarial.

Tenants at Nine Elms have other things to concern them this week, after a former colleague claimed that the market has a cocaine problem. While one trader quipped “we don’t want everyone to know that - they’ll all want to work here”, there is a more serious side to claims such as this.

Published in the Evening Standard, which is read by a large cross-section of London’s public and business community, the article is unnecessarily vicious. It also claims that traders don’t care about the vegetables they are selling. I hope it is retracted.