Camden Passage Market and 'The Mall'

Camden Passage is a World-famous, highly popular, and very unique Antiques Market. Local Council policies recognise this, yet the market has been under constant threat for several years. Since I was elected I have been campaigning hard to save the market, publicising and challenging every attempt to kick out antiques traders to make way for bland high-street retailers.

In 2005 the Council allowed a national fashion retailer to close the building known as the 'Georgian Village' next to Tesco, kick out all 38 businesses, and gut the building to make a single clothing store. The Council also allowed the new owner to demolish the canopy that used to cover the pavement in front of the building, and where there was once a thriving antiques market on Wednedays and Saturdays, and a farmers market on Sundays, there is now a sterile open space where the only interest is Tesco trolleys full of waste packing waiting to be loaded onto lorries. This was all allowed to go through without the Council even demanding a planning application for the changes to the building. I challenged this, but was told there was "nothing could be done". This was feeble, and there is plenty under Council Policy that could have been done if the determination was there, which obviously it wasn't.

Next to go was the 'Angel Arcade'. This time the Council did look into the loss of the small units, taking legal advice on whether they could be defended. Advice was that the units could be defended, although not with certainty. I attempted to get the Council to pursue this, but instead, chair of South Area Planning Committee, Lib Dem George Alan, used a confidential meeting to change the wording of the report to state that the Council would not defend the small units, and the arcade has gone. It is now a single shop selling furniture.

Most recently, a very aggressive developer called London and Associated Properties (LAP) has bought 'The Mall', which is the listed tramshed building housing two floors of tiny shops near the Duke of York pub, at the South end of Camden Passage. The market in this building is much loved by everyone from local residents buying jewelry, to international designers buying props for window displays in New York and Tokyo. LAP applied for permission to gut the building, presumably to lease it to a single National retailer, and was refused. The Committee meeting attracted over 300 people, all against losing 'The Mall'.

LAP have appealed against the refusal, with the appeal to be heard at the Town Hall on 9th and 10th December, and I hope as many people as possible will attend. LAP have no interest in the local character or community, and are simply interested in making money at any price. This is not in the local interest.

I have spent much time pondering why this Lib Dem Council is so weak in the face of developers, and in particular, so reluctant to stop the bland commercialisation of our once very distinctive and unique shopping streets round the Angel. Maybe they think it is "cleaner and safer". If you ask them, they say there is "nothing they can do". This is not true. There are local policies which defend small units, and defend the character of the area. And I am left with the feeling that had the Council been more robust when the Georgian Village was under threat, developers like LAP would never have thought they could get away with it. The message needs to go out to developers that we will not allow the character and uniqueness of our area to be destroyed in the name of commercialisation.

Maybe its time to elect a Council that will put local interests first.