Ward’s Corner, the indoor market and buildings above Seven Sisters station that Haringey council has spent years trying to scrub away in favour of a retail and residential unit, has been saved, as opposition to the scheme, headed by the Ward’s Corner Community Coalition (WCCC), argued that any development should help out existing local businesses and be respectful of the area’s history and heritage.
A court of appeal judge decided this week that removing the market, a haphazard and partly derelict mixture of mostly Latin American stallholders, would ‘damage race relations’ in the area.
Giving the lead judgement, Lord Justice Pill said that ‘on the material before the council, there was sufficient potential impact on equality of opportunity between persons of different racial groups, and on good relations between such groups, to require that the impact of the decision on those aspects of social and economic life be considered…There was no analysis of the material before the council in the context of the [Council’s equality] duty and that he would allow the appeal and quash the permission’.
The main retail tenant was to be a major national supermarket chain, on a junction where a large Tesco already takes up one entire block.
The WCCC described the background to their initiative as follows:
‘The Wards Corner Community Coalition (‘WCC’) came together to block a development by Graingers, which plans to demolish the Edwardian buildings and those in three adjacent streets, and build 8 storey blocks of flats and retail space for chain stores and a national supermarket. The Coalition want to hold onto their market, their local businesses, their meeting spaces, the building they cherished and improve the area by building on the vibrant and multi-cultural character of Seven Sisters. The process of developing an alternative plan has brought the communities together and we have become inspired by the sheer skills and knowledge possessed by our local community.’
The WCCC organised various attention-grabbing stunts, even getting Boris Johnson to visit the market before he was elected Mayor and eliciting from him a promise that he’d ‘call in’ the project.
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