60 traders whose livelihoods were "snatched" away earlier this year — with the sudden closure of Stratford's Market Village — have expressed relief that their stalls have been saved.
In January, the market — which has been based inside the Stratford Centre for over 30 years, and comprises dozens of local businesses including clothes retailers, barbers, butchers, nail bars and eateries — was closed down, after the company running it went into administration. Since then, the market and its 100 workers have had to cease trading.
Now though, Stratford Market Village has had a reprieve, thanks to Newham Council, which has taken on a 15-year lease of the market from landlords Unex. The council has done this by using £700k of funding from Newham's existing allocation from the GLA Good Growth Fund which was "no longer required to deliver the full outputs of another scheme." The money will instead be used to substantially underwrite Newham Council's risks for the first year of the 15-year lease. Unex has also offered a one-year break clause, after which the council can decide whether to operate the market itself, or assign the lease to another market operator.
Samantha Scott, owner of GT Spice Caribbean Takeaway in Stratford Market Village said: "I have no words to explain how overwhelmed and relieved that someone took us seriously and we can hopefully reopen soon. We are so glad to be back."
Angie and Ali Akbas, owners of Centre Café, said: "We are absolutely ecstatic about the market reopening soon. It means so much to regain our business of over 20 years back and be able to connect with our customers which we have missed over the past three stressful months."
No date for the reopening of the market has been given — although Newham Council has promised it'll be "as soon as possible".
