Stratford Shopping Centre: Newham Council votes to close mall overnight permanently

An east London council has voted to shut a local shopping centre overnight permanently, after a temporary measure resulted in a significant reduction in antisocial behaviour incidents.

Stratford Shopping Centre, which acts as a public highway connecting one part of the town with another, has been shut from 9pm to 5am since a public health order was implemented in March 2020 due to Covid.

Prior to this order, the shopping centre was being used by up to 89 homeless people to shelter overnight, according to a council report. Evidence from the police showed that over this period, there had been an increase in antisocial behaviour and public health issues such as urination and defecation.

Since March 2020, the temporary closure has been extended first via the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014, and then a traffic management order, which is due to end on September 6.

Council officers had recommended the temporary measure be made permanent, writing in a cabinet report it had “proven effective in significantly reducing the public health risk and antisocial behaviour whilst providing for the safe accommodation of most [of] the rough sleepers.

“It has also presented adult social care [services] with the unique opportunity to engage positively with a significant number of rough sleepers who previously were reluctant to do so.”

At a cabinet meeting last night (July 20), Cllr James Asser, the deputy mayor and cabinet member for environment and sustainable transport, said the proposal was brought “because we think it has worked. We don’t want a return to the situation we had previously.”

The mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, told cabinet it is “not right” to have rough sleepers sleeping in the mall overnight, neither for their own safety or that of the wider neighbourhoods.

She said: “If ever we get back to a situation of the Stratford Mall as I described, we will have failed the residents and the people of this borough, and also we would have failed in our purpose of helping those most vulnerable, and we would have failed all of those small businesses in one of the most busiest shopping centres that regular folk use.

“Not the Stratford Westfields of this world, but regular folk using the Sainsburys, the fruit stalls, the little shops, because right now they need to make ends meet. We would have failed all of them.”

Several mitigations were raised by councillors, notably the need to improve the paving and public realm around the mall if it is to be shut overnight on a permanent basis.

Cllr John Whitworth told the chamber he had previously been “reluctant” to have the shopping centre shut. However, after seeing the “appalling” conditions, prior to temporary closure orders, he said he had changed his mind.

Others, including Cllr Sabia Kamali, who represents the Stratford ward, spoke on the benefits of the proposal, due to concerns over the impacts of antisocial behaviour both on those passing through the mall, and those sleeping in it overnight.

Following a round of input from each of the councillors present, the recommendations, which as well as the permanent closure of the centre overnight includes a delegation to propose any appropriate amendments to the order in the future, was unanimously approved.