Olympic effort for new market

Retail traders at Borough market could be poached for a new market near the Olympic stadium.

Australian firm Westfield is trying to tempt traders disgruntled by the ongoing row at Borough to its £1.5 billion Stratford site, according to Estates Gazette.

The new farmers’ market will be between two supermarkets - a Waitrose and a Marks & Spencer - next to the Olympic site.

Markets specialist professor Alan Hallsworth told FPJ: “It is clearly hard to build a market from scratch and Borough is in a unique location. I doubt whether people attending the Olympics will buy fruit and vegetables to take home and cook but long term, being next to a Waitrose and an M&S could work.”

George Nicholson, secretary of the National Retail Planning Forum, said: “There is too much snobbery associated with quality food and those involved with it in this country... It is interesting that this story coincides with a return in the retail property industry in the UK to schemes being anchored by food stores again.”

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