Tower Hamlets council accused of neglecting market ahead of Olympics

TRADERS and residents say the council is not doing enough to improve one of the East End s most famous markets in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

By Else Kvist TRADERS and residents say the council is not doing enough to improve one of the East End's most famous markets in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

Alan Tucker, who lives near Bow's Roman Road, said its market is "nearly dead" and not "lively and thriving" as the council describes it in a conservation report.

He said: "Despite being a conservation area for the last 20 years the decline of the market has accelerated. There are no craft shops, bookshops or antique shops. Four pubs have closed, two within the market and two just outside.

"In three years time 1.2 million people will come to see the Olympics, less than one mile from the market. As a local resident I would be ashamed for the world to see my local area in its current state."

Mr Tucker said 40 people including 17 shopkeepers signed a deputation calling on Tower Hamlets Labour cabinet to change the conservation report's description of the market.

He said: "We need an honest starting point. Only then can we work to conserve all that is good and remedy what is failing."

Mr Tucker is among residents who objected to the council's planning permission for a ten-storey residential tower block with a Tesco Metro store at ground level.

The campaigners say the scale of the planned block at Gladstone Place, off Roman Road, is not in keeping with the conservation area's two to four storey houses.