Pay up and lump it at new Covent Garden
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THE NEW Covent Garden Market, opened in London on Monday, has access to the flower market on Nine Elms Lane nearly opposite the Nine Elms cold store and to the fruit and vegetable market further along near Battersea Park Rd.
At both entrances there are control/ pay booths and entrance to the market costs from 20p to £.1 a vehicle depending on size. There is access at any time of the day.
Clearances both through the pay booths and the
underpasses which give access to the fruit and vegetable market and the flower market are adequate but not generous. For instance, the width of the roadway through the booths is about 13 ft and the height of the underpasses is 16ft 6in. At the left of the fruit market entrance is a holding area for road vehicle which will be used for delivery vehicles if there is congestion in the market.
At the fruit and vegetable market each commission
agent has its own area to which produce can be delivered, but there is no loading/ unloading dock. It is intended that vehicles will be discharged by fork-lift truck.
At the flower market, however, there is a 19-bay loading/ unloading dock fitted with dock levellers.
Vehicles collecting produce which has been bought at the market are parked at the holding area, and small electric vehicles similar to milk floats perambulate the purchased produce from the commission agent's premises to the buyer's vehicle.
The movement of traffic within the market is monitored by close-circuit televison linked to a main control room.
The main exit is on Wandsworth Road and there are fuel facilities adjacent to the exit.
For containers and long vehicles there is a container dock equipped with dock levellers in the southern part of the market.