Nine Elms for New Covent Garden ?
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FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT THE Covent Garden Market Authority .I. has asked the Minister of Agriculture to agree to the construction of a new fruit and vegetable market on a 72-acre site at Nine Elms, Vauxhall. This proposal follows the rejection of the Beckton Road site by the Market's Management committee, because they felt it could not preserve Covent Garden's dual role as principal market for the U.K. and the largest supplier of Central London.
The management committee — the annual report of the Authority reveals— urged the selection of Nine Elms.
The main obstacle standing in the way of an intense survey of Nine Elms was removed when British Railways indicated that a 42-acre stretch of land south of the main line from Waterloo could he assumed to be available to reinforce the rather unsuitable 30 acres previously available.
The study therefore went ahead, assisted by a steering committee representing traders, workers and road hauliers, and it was announced last Monday that the Minister had been told that Nine Elms could house an effic:ent and economic market, and that the Authority was seeking consent to promote a Bill to allow the work to be done.
The Minister, Mr. Christopher Soames, said he was giving "urgent consideration" to this request.
Beck ton Road had earlier emerged as the leading contender after the Fantus Company International Division had exhaustively surveyed London for a new site and eventually assessed five places, including Nine Elms.
They concluded, on the evidence then available, that Beekton Road (a site in the apex of a triangle between the Victoria and Royal Albert Docks) was clearly the most efficient place for a low cost market.
The news, however, that more land would be available at Nine Elms transformed its chances. It should not, for instance, any longer be necessary to build the multi-storey market which at first appeared inevitable.
The annual report of the Authority, out last Monday, also reveals why the plan for a marshalling yard for the existing Covent Garden market was abandoned late last year.
Lorry drivers who could not be dealt with by traders were reluctant to go to Dodson Street across the river, and there await call, because they felt that they ran the risk of losing the first available parking space in the market.
Similarly, traders found it impossible in practice always to call a lorry forward from the marshalling yard before accepting another vehicle with produce For which there might be more urgent demand.
As a result, during the 45 weeks front November, 1962, to September last year, only four vehicles a day on average made use of Dodson Street.
The Authority, which had an option on a larger site near Vauxhall Br:dge, surveyed the failure of this scheme to end the " cruising " which causes congestion at the market. They had no power to direct lorries to the yard, and so they decided to abandon the scheme.
Footnote: The Fantus report produced this interesting table of produce movement into Covent Garden during 1961.
By road from By road from By road Total
railheads . London Docks all the way ('000 tons) ('000 tons) ('000 tons) (000 tons)
175 238 101 514 74 98 402 574 5 2) 70 96 - 254 357 573 1,184 21% , 30% 49% 100%