Fiaz Heckled in Market Protest
For reasons best known to herself (and her expensive Assistant Chief Executive for Marketing), Mayor Fiaz ‘launched’ her bid for Newham to become Borough of Culture in 2024 in the somewhat dank and run-down surroundings of Queens Road Market. What’s more, she chose to do it on a cold winter evening.
Screens, stalls and a creditable, though not outstanding crowd attended. Fiaz got up and spoke between a number of music performances by young people. In the manner in which we have become accustomed, she took 15 minutes to say what could have been said in five. In the sunshine you can put up with this, but when the temperature is approaching zero, your audience might begin to drift.
Thus it was that when she approached the crescendo of her peroration and asked the audience “are you with us?”, they responded with … a resounding silence, then a murmur.
Cue music.
If that were not bad enough, she had an additional reason to rue the choice of venue. The traders at Queens Road Market have long had cause to complain about the council, (their landlords). Crime and ASB go unchecked; they are feeling left out of the redevelopment proposals; lack of safety; dirt and litter. But on this occasion, seeing that the mayor was there, they hastily put together placards on disused cardboard to protest the absence of free parking.
Multi-million-pound supermarket chains can afford free parking and offer convenience. At Queen’s Market the loss of free parking is affecting the footfall.
The protesters were shuffled away from the event by council security staff.
They might have reflected upon the cost of putting the bid together and just what benefit it will bring to the borough. It might look good on the mayor's CV, but the lasting improvements that it will bring to the borough are somewhat more difficult to define.
To add insult to injury, the morning after the event, BBC News posted an article about crime and ASB in the market area.
Perhaps one of our councillors might ask “How much is the bid, and what areas of work does the mayor intend to cut in order to finance it?”.