By Steve Butters, 6 Feb 2014
Readers may know of the decade-long struggle by residents around London Borough of Newham's Green Street (where West Ham meets East Ham) to defend their popular indoor market from insensitive redevelopment.
The latest step in the campaign by the Friends of Queens Market was a bid made in November (2013) for the site to be registered as a community asset with the potential for a later community take-over bid.
Months passed during which Newham did not respond. It emerged that the borough council had no protocol for dealing with community asset registration requests despite receiving Department for Community and Local Government (DCLG) "new burdens" money supporting these asset registers. Now the Head of Property Services has expressed willingness to help. However, they have also logged a plan of the site that would put the community bid out of entitlement.
The Friends will soon submit their revised site plan, which will meet the law's requirements. They have high hopes that the borough will register Queens Market as its first community asset proposal. If successful in the next few months, registration may prove to be a vital step in the continuing campaign to keep the market properly maintained. This will be a preferable alternative to replacing it with luxury apartments in a tower over a "bijou style" market. Local people depend on the current market for fresh foodstuffs and household goods at reasonable prices.
