East London fish sellers fight for survival as future threatened by Billingsgate Market closure
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Two petitions have been filed with Parliament against the Corporation’s plans to shut Smithfield and Billingsgate markets. A third originally submitted has since been withdrawn.
One, organised on behalf of traders from Hackney’s Ridley Road Market who rely on fish from Billingsgate and local residents buying their produce, claimed three businesses ‘would close if there was no central fish market that they could access’. A spokesperson for the City of London Corporation said it will consider each petition and respond ‘in due course’.
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The Corporation agreed in a private meeting last November to cancel a planned relocation of Smithfield and Billingsgate, and later New Spitalfields, to a new site in Dagenham, and to instead close both markets.
RELATED NEWS: From Billingsgate to Smithfield: 10 photographs of London’s markets over the last 100 years
The co-location programme was to deliver a state-of-the-art facility, with thousands of jobs and billions of pounds expected to be generated as a result. Concerns over rising costs, however, led to the proposal that the scheme be cancelled and the Corporation pull out of running wholesale meat and fish markets. The costs of refurbishing and future-proofing Smithfield Market were also understood to be extensive.
The Corporation has said it will support traders to move to new locations, and just before Christmas, joint statements with the Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association (SMTA) and the London Fish Merchants’ Association (LFMA) indicated most have confirmed they will continue operating once they leave the existing sites. Traders can continue selling their goods at Smithfield and Billingsgate until at least 2028.
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Hide AdTo pull out of running the markets the Corporation had to submit a Private Bill with Parliament in November. This is due to be scrutinised by politicians, and included a period in which objectors could file petitions against the Bill. Two have been submitted, including one by Peter Acton. Mr Acton began a petition on Change.org calling for Smithfield to be saved which attracted thousands of signatures.
In his submission, Mr Acton wrote that while he is based in Cardiff, he lived and worked in London for 13 years. He described the markets as ‘irreplaceable assets’, the closing of which would be ‘a short-sighted failure of leadership’.
He wrote: “The food infrastructure of London depends on Smithfield and Billingsgate markets. Their closure would severely impact countless communities, including low-income families, schools, the NHS, the police, and many others who rely on these wholesale markets for affordable and quality sustenance.”
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Hide AdThe second petition was filed on behalf of 27 traders and residents either working on or who use Ridley Road Market in Hackney. Bags of Taste, an organisation supporting people in food poverty, was also one of the petitioners and appeared to have organised the submission. It raised concerns about the dissemination of information about the closure, claiming that only one of the six fishmongers spoken to knew the move to Dagenham was cancelled.
Referring to the three fish sellers who would be forced to close down, the petition adds: “They employ staff (2-3 each) and everyone would be made redundant. Specifically, they said that they cannot afford to buy a whole container of fish; in Billingsgate they can shop with several different distributors for smaller quantities, and compare prices to buy the best value fish that their customers demand.
“If there was no central market they would need to ‘spend the whole day driving around London’ to get the same fish from different suppliers, as they would not be willing to deliver such small quantities. One business owner said that this is the only business he knows, and would end up on benefits as he didn’t have any other options.”
The prevalence of fish in the diets of certain communities and the low costs of local markets such as that on Ridley Road were also raised, with the fear the closure of Billingsgate without a replacement may ‘undermine the once-thriving Ridley Road Market, and similar ones across London’.
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Hide AdA City of London Corporation spokesperson said: “The City of London Corporation will carefully consider each petition and respond in due course.”
On the progress made so far regarding Billingsgate finding a new home, the spokesperson added: “The City of London Corporation is supporting traders as they identify new sites by facilitating discussions with developers and landowners.”
Smithfield is the UK’s largest wholesale meat market and Billingsgate the biggest inland fish market. Both are widely renowned, with a market existing in Smithfield since the medieval period. Billingsgate historically had a site in the City though moved to its current Poplar base by Canary Wharf in 1982. Smithfield is to house new cultural and commercial offerings including the new London Museum while Billingsgate is earmarked to deliver thousands of homes.
The Private Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons on January 22 and second reading on January 30. A date for the third reading has yet to be announced.
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