• ANOTHER council-created disaster area in Gospel Oak is the once flourishing street market, the relevant cabinet member is Cllr Nadia Shah.

Five years ago, under the management of a local voluntary organisation, the crescent flourished with 60 or 70 stalls each market day.

The council, without proper explanation, decided to pull the plug on the management contract in September 2015.

The next five years saw the number of stalls plummet to less than 10 each market day. An explanation is needed, as a high-powered officer had been recruited to oversee all the borough’s markets.

The council set up a QC Market Improvement Group in 2015, of customers, shop keepers and stall holders. They produced a development plan and there was a consultant-led workshop.

The MIG was abolished, the residents’ plan not even acknowledged, and no report of the consultation ever published.

In May 2016 the council published a separate report of a consultation with nearly 1,000 local people. This identified the regeneration of Queen’s Crescent retail area as the major priority. Again this was ignored.

In February 2018 the council succeeded in getting a £1.1million grant from the GLA to develop the crescent. Yet more “consultations”, costing £65,000.

Again nothing happened, no doubt this time Covid-19 will be cited as the reason, even though the main consultation report was supposed to have been published in April 2019.

Leaving aside the economic importance of QC, it is the major focus for social cohesion with residents meeting and mixing over shopping.

We suspect we are about to be invited yet again to more “consultations” and yet more delays. Given the above, what confidence can we have that things will change or people be listened to.

Future “plans” and explanations please, Cllr Shah.

MICK FARRANT,
NW5