Our next meeting will be on the 22nd of May, Victoria Pub (Great George Street), 6pm. This is a chance to meet again after our sucessful public meeting on the 17th of April and discuss our strategy for the next few months and talk about how you can get involved. We will also discuss the consultation that Leeds City Council has now launched.
Everybody welcome; even if you have never come to one of our meetings.
Here is an excellent letter written to the Yorkshire Evening Post by Mike Harwood on the 4th of May. This is one easy way in which we can all contribute to communicate our feelings about the Market and support it. Here is the email address to write to the YEP: yep.newsdesk@ypn.co.uk
Letter: Critical test for our new city authority
BY today, I assume, the Labour Party will be in control of Leeds Council with a larger majority.
To me, one of the tests, perhaps the central test of their stewardship (and that is what they are, stewards, no more; Leeds belongs to its people, not the politicians, far less to would-be profiteers), will be what they do about Kirkgate Market. They can rescue it or they can destroy it.
If they adopt the so-called Quarterbridge plan, that will, in effect, destroy it; that is if they close the outdoor market, reduce the overall size by 25 per cent and, most destructive of all, hand it over to a private operator.
Kirkgate Market is the living descendant of the bustling markets of Chaucer’s 14th century – life around ‘Southwerk at the Tabard’; the life of the local people, the traders, the pilgrims and travellers. It is the life bustling around Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in Southwark, in the early 17th century – all now without the open sewers, one is happy to add.
But our Kirkgate Market is not just a dead civic monument to that tradition, to be destroyed and dismissed with a blue plaque; that tradition still being lived and created, alive and kicking (if it is not kicked to death by the social vandals).
When I needed a bottle of kirsch for my daughter’s birthday cake, it was in the Market (and only in the Market), that I could find it. When she needed materials for her needlework at school, there was a market stall with the answer.
The Market is multicultural in what it sells and in those who move up and down its aisles – and that in itself is beautiful.
And if you need to save money (I do not of course address myself to the bankers here) then get your vegetables in the outdoor market. At a rough guess they will cost you less than half the price at…you know where I mean. Last week I bought a huge bag of onions, firm and healthy, for £1 – enough, with perhaps just a little exaggeration, to give my whole street a good cry.
To me, not only do we love the Market, we need the Market. Please, let it be given the transfusion to which it is entitled; let it be saved, not handed over to the vandals and bodysntachers. Let the politicians show respect.
Mike Harwood, by email
Like this:
Candidates for the 3rd of May local elections in Leeds have been signing our Market Pledge. We have so far received over 20 signatures from candidates across different wards and parties in Leeds who have pledged that if elected they will halt plans to reduce the Market’s size and bring in the private sector, create a more democratic management structure, reduce rents and create sustainable investment. We have received particularly strong support from the Green Party and the Alliance for Green Socialism.
We also asked the existing 99 councillors to sign our pledge – regrettably, we have only heard from two existing Labour councillors, claiming ‘not to know enough’ about the issues to sign or only partly agreeing with the pledge. We also heard indirectly from MP Hilary Benn who said he generally supported the Market. But the we have heard nothing directly from the rest of our elected representatives, not even an explanation for why they might not agree with the whole or parts of the pledge. What this tells us is despite the council’s general statement that they “support the market” in fact their actions mean something different, and that we cannot simply rely on councillors to change course. It is clear there is a huge support for the Market as it is from members of the public and traders. It is in our hands therefore to support the market by making it our main place for shopping in Leeds and fighting against the council’s plans to make it smaller and bring in the private sector. After all it’s the People’s Market not the Council’s Market!
Like this:
Friends of Leeds Kirkgate Market is calling on councillors, candidates for the forthcoming local elections as well as MPs to sign a pledge to protect the Market. We are asking members of the public to contact their councillors and candidates, send them the pledge and ask them to answer whether they will sign it or not.
Below is the pledge which you can forward on. For your councillor and MP you can find their email and postal address here. For candidates for the forthcoming local elections on the 3rd of May we have obtained this list with names and postal addresses for each ward.
Please send us the responses you get as we will publish them: friendsofkirkgatemarket@gmail.com
MARKET PLEDGE
I pledge that if elected/as your representative I will fully support:
- A halt to the project to reduce the size of the market and bring in the private sector
- The creation of an elected management board to run the market as a public trust with places for traders and councillors
- A 12 month rent reduction to support existing trader investment, bring in new traders and increase rental income
- Council borrowing against the Market’s profits for sustainable reinvestment and refurbishment
Public meeting great success. Read what happened
Our public meeting “Hands off the People’s Market” on the 17th of April was success. More than hundred people turned up To Trinity Chuch. Mainly members of the public, traders and some councilors or candidates for the next local elections.
There were presentations from FOLKM, civic trust and traders and lots of comments from the public. There was also a fantastic cake in the shape of the Market and traders, campaigners and members of the public shared tea, coffee and cake after the talks.
The message of the night was clear: The council has neglected the Market but the people of Leeds won’t let their Market decline. We want a People’s market, managed democratically with affordable rents for traders, so that it can carry on being a resource for everyone in Leeds and beyond, specially those in lower incomes.
Sara Gonzalez from FOLKM explained why the Market as we know it is under threat putting into historical context the current plans to make the Market smaller and transfer its management and ownership to a public private partnership. This presentation can be see here. Jim Brettell from the Civic Trust planning committee called for the people of Leeds to launch a campaign as big as the one which saw the 1980s MAB project (that would have seen the Market relegated to the ground floor of a shopping centre) overturned by public opposition. Michelle Hocken, vice-chair of the Leeds branch of the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) gave a personal view as a trader whose family has traded in the 1976 hall for decades. Liz Laughton, Chair of the Leeds branch of the NMTF spoke about her joy of living her life in the Market and the sadness of seeing the Council mismanaging it. Her speech can be read here. Finally Julie Badon from FOLKM gave an update of what the campaign has been doing since it was launched at the same place two years earlier. There were then contributions for the public and tea, coffee and cake to finish the meeting.
FOLKM launched a pledge for all councillors and candidates to sign to defend the market and three candidates signed the pledge. We will be publishing the pledge and candidates and councillors addresses for everybody to send to their councillors.
The meeting was videoed and can be used to constructively understand the public and trader views.
The meeting was well covered by local and national media. Read about it YEP, Guardian Northerner and BBC
Our next meeting will be at the Victoria Pub (behind Town Hall), 22nd of May at 6pm to plan what to do next.
Hands off the People’s Market!!!
Our Public meeting tonight will have speakers from Friends of Leeds Kirkgate Market, Civic Trust and interventions from the Leeds branch of the National Market Traders Federation and discussion to think together how to fight for the Market. There will be an amazing cake in the shape of the Market and lots of time to talk over tea and coffee after the talks and questions. We should be finished by 8.15.
Come to Trinity Church on Boar Lane at 6.30!!
Hands off the People’s Market
PUBLIC MEETING on TUESDAY APRIL 17th 6.30pm in Trinity Church, Boar Lane.
If you are concerned about the future of the market and if you’d like to
help fight to protect its future – come and hear what we’ve been doing and
how you can get more involved.
Read our latest newsletter where we expose the latest plans to shrink the Market and partly privatise it. Feel free to print copies and distribute them. If you want colour printed copies to distribute get in touch at friendsofkirkgatemarket@gmail.com
Is Something Fishy Going on in the Eastgate Scheme
Hot on the heels of Leeds City Council’s crazy decision to reduce the size of Kirkgate Market by 25% as part of a remodelled market (click here) we learn that the adjacent Eastgate retail scheme could now be in trouble.
Development giants Hammerson are asking the council - and the city – to bend over backwards to make sure that John Lewis is part of the planned Eastgate shopping mall. A confidential document will be considered by councillors this week but the proposed changes will not be made public and will instead be discussed at a private pre-meeting of the council’s Executive Board.
Readers will recall that ‘Eastgate‘ is a £650m retail development covering a 1 million sq ft area that involves demolishing most of the existing Eastgate Terraces and iconic buildings like the Lyons Works Factory to make way for new John Lewis and Marks & Spencer stores and some 130 new shops, restaurants and bars. Having already been delayed once and forced to abandon any housing as part of a revised scheme due to the global financial crisis, a new outline planning application was approved in September 2011.
Friends of Leeds Kirkgate Market along with the Market Traders Federation actively opposed the Eastgate scheme due to major concerns about its likely impact on the Market, and a further 180 people (including traders) objected to the scheme. One of these objections concerned the design of the John Lewis store which turned its back on the Market and the potential traffic chaos on George Street as a result of John Lewis traffic and the creation of a new one-way traffic system. Another concern was the potential lack of demand for yet more shops in Leeds City Centre particularly in times of economic crisis. But Hammerson presented consultancy reports that assured the council and the public that the project was commercially viable. Now we learn in this new report that the John Lewis store is not currently commercially viable: “Changes will be required to the existing legal documentation”. What changes? John Lewis clearly has doubts over the scheme.
Shortly after the Eastgate plans were given outline planning permission last year, John Lewis chief exec Andy Street said: “To bring the huge retail regeneration of the city centre of the scale of Eastgate, this isn’t just about John Lewis, lots of other things in the background have got to come together. That’s what we keep saying to the chief executive and leader of Leeds City Council. You’ve got to make that context happen so Hammerson can deliver their commercial piece.” (LeedsBusinessDeskinterviewNovember 2011)
Friends of Leeds Kirkgate Market only heard about these proposed changes from the LeedsCitizen blog so we read with surprise in the report going to Executive Board that “Meetings have been held on a regular basis with the Civic Trust, the Kirkgate Market Forum (traders & members) and there has been dialogue with the Friends of the Kirkgate Market” (paragraph 4.1.1.).
FOLKM had one meeting with Hammerson on the 1st of June last year – a 40 minute power point presentation and a frustrating session where we asked questions which Hammerson didn’t or couldn’t answer. This can hardly be described as “dialogue”.
Is this an attempt to convince John Lewis that everyone is on board and waiting to welcome them to the city with open arms? What is it that would make our city a more attractive proposition for John Lewis? How will it affect the market? Why is John Lewis calling the shots over this scheme? Why are these decisions and discussions taking place behind closed doors?
