Traders need an end to the uncertainty surrounding the future of New Covent Garden Market, said Michael Jack, chairman of the environment and rural affairs select committee.
Speaking at a reception to mark the 30th anniversary of the markets move to Nine Elms, he said he would be meeting with Defra minister Larry Whitty to urge a quick decision.
“One thing that doesn’t help the market is uncertainty,” he said. “People have often said the market is down and out, but somehow you’ve survived because you’ve adapted to meet the challenges and that’s what a market is all about.”
He praised the entrepreneurial nature of the market and the characters within it, and said he firmly believes the industry has a future.
He said a key ingredient in that is the attitude of the government and said they had a vested interest in securing New Covent Garden’s long term future. “They need to get the interested parties round the table,” he added.
Leif Mills, chairman of the Covent Garden Market Authority, said that although they were marking 30 years of history, it was only 30 years at the new location.
He said records suggested the market’s history went back much further than its charter suggested, to beyond the 13th century.
“Whatever happens in the future, we’re not going to slip a tradition of 1,000 years.”
