Mills told freshinfo: 'I am very unhappy with the lack of face shown by the corporation. The committee has done the dirty on the understanding we had with them. Central to the recommendations of Nicholas Saphir was that there would be three composite wholesale markets in London and after initially supporting this, Tom Simmons and his committee have cut across the whole business.
'A composite market would obviously take in the face to face trading of meat and fish and the committee is now suggesting that we should not be able to do this. It is said that the six and two thirds mile law, which was passed in 1327 during the reign of Edward III, has stood the test of time. It hasn't, it has just never been challenged. We are quite willing to challenge its validity in court – the committee's stance is anti-competitive and certainly contradicts European competition law.' The committee's suggestion that some of the activities in Covent Garden lack a long-term future at the site and that the corporation would be unwilling to invest in the infrastructure at Nine Elms also angered Mills. 'It is quite evident that this statement is simply designed to serve the interests of Spitalfields and its tenants at its other markets, and to do Covent Garden down,' he said.
'The corporation makes no reference whatsoever to the importance of the wholesale function here and we cannot accept that the wholesaling function should be in any way in jeopardy. In fact we see the implementation of the Saphir report being a substantial boost to the wholesaling function as well as the catering activities carried on here.' Tenants association chairman Philip Emanuel was equally forthright. 'We are deeply disappointed with the various statements being made by the corporation's committee. This is not what the review was recommending and neither is it in line with what we had been informed was the Corporation's line of thinking on the matter.
'We were under the impression that they were in favour of two composite markets in London, at Spitalfields and Covent Garden, and we were prepared to progress with that. We had heard the rumours about Billingsgate traders, but we were also ready to tackle that positively.
'The opposition of the committee to the repealing of the six and two third miles rule straight away implies that they would exclude face-to-face wholesaling of meat and fish at Covent Garden, which we could not accept.
'They are also suggesting that the non-horticultural and non-wholesale businesses at Nine Elms could be encouraged to expand their services to the catering industry, while they do not seem to be suggesting any place in the market for the wholesalers that are already in existence. Again, we are not prepared to accept that point of view.
'The fact that the review was jointly sponsored by Defra and the corporation and that the recommendations are now being used in this way does not look or feel right to us as tenants. The corporation does not seem to have the interests of the tenants here in mind, and Defra is trying to sell the market.'
