A spectre of corporate malice is said to stalk Dalston's Ridley market

OPEN has previously written here about how Hackney's beancounters were going bananas in Ridley Road market.



We told the story of Janet Devers who is the sister of Colin Hunt, one of the original metric martyrs. The Council are prosecuting Janet for selling by the pound whilst not also showing prices in kilos, and for selling unweighed fresh produce by the bowl or the bunch. Now you can hear what Janet herself has to say in this video.



Sadly the situation has got much worse. Recently the Council have applied to add another 9 charges to those which Janet will face in the Crown Court jury trial in January. The Council are also making new allegations about her brother Colin. And evidence has now come to light which, reports suggest, show that Colin and Janet are being deliberately targeted for punitive action by the Council. A spectre of corporate malice is said to be stalking Ridley market.



The traders of Ridley Road Market in happier times - a day out for the ladies.

Hackney's Mayor Pipe has rubbished the traders protests that over regulation is driving them out. As for the recent disconnection of all the electrics in the market that is, he says, because the installations are damaged and dangerous due to traders breaking in to steal electricity. Nothing to do then with the last Council refurbishment of the market's electrics being so shoddy that it was unable to produce an electrician's certificate that the work was up to health and safety standards.



The traders of Ridley Road Market in happier times - a day out for the gents

So. No electric, no electric scales. The traders will just have to rely on their clunky old fashioned manual scales for their weights and measures which are only in er... pounds and ounces.

Mayor Pipe has also denied plans for Olympic redevelopment of market land. But he has yet to give his view of the consultant's recommendation to redevelop the market's Birkbeck Road site for residential use. Or to explain why its market's store has been left derelict for so long.

Do you know anyone in this photo? What are they saying?