Is the Council really trying to help Ridley Road market?

Evidence has come to light that, despite Hackney Council's pledges to "champion existing small businesses, protect Ridley Road market and secure affordable workspaces", its officers were closely involved in trying to close down the Shopping Village indoor market last year pending private redevelopment. Hackney is also now seeking to impose draconian new terms on its street market traders, including compulsory attendance over a six day week. You can read about those terms here - it is a licence for slavery.

The Shopping Village indoor market had been purchased in November 2016 for £6.5million by the off-shore developer, Larochette Real Estate Inc.. It claims to be incorporated in the British Virgin Islands secrecy jurisdiction, but of that there is no public evidence.

In March 2018 it made a planning application to Hackney to convert the building into luxury offices and flats. The application incorrectly described the building as vacant - although at the time there were more than 25 independent small traders on the ground floor, 60 artists in occupation of the 1st and 2nd floors and street market storage.

Following a police raid, in which cannabis and cash were found, on 11 October 2018 Larochette's lessee, which managed the Shopping Village, wrote to all the indoor market traders stating " we have been in discussions with London Borough of Hackney and the Metropolitan Police who both have been considering applying to the Court for a Closure Order of the Ridley Road Shopping Village due to numerous allegations of anti-social behavior etc....Unfortunately despite all our efforts the police have now served us with a notice". The letter gave all of the traders just 14 days notice to get out, despite many having traded there for decades. In parallel, the artists on the two upper floors were also told to leave by 31 December.

An ITV news report from November 2018

The owners actions caused uproar. A vociferous community campaign led to reports in the national media. It emerged that in fact there had been no closure order but a police  Community Protection Notice (CPN) requiring improved security at the Shopping Village. Hackney was quick to respond, with the Mayor issuing as press release  stating "I am appalled at the actions of the market owners....They have chosen to use a CPN as an excuse to close the market early and damage a number of small businesses". A note added that the closure was "earlier than originally agreed"-  although not stating who the agreement was with. Agreement of the traders to leave had never been sought.To assist their departure, the Council offered the traders "fast track" access to stalls in the street market. 

Now new evidence has emerged of Hackney Council officers' involvement in the planned closure of the Shopping Village. Minutes of a meeting last month, with street market traders to discuss new licensing conditions, record Hackney's Service Area Manager boasting about "all the great work the markets team have done to improve ASB, closed down the indoor market...etc.". But as Hackney's Area Manager should know, the Shopping Village was not closed.  (We're paying for all that "great work". Thanks guys! Ed)

The Shopping Village is still trading. Despite repeated demands from the owner's lawyers for vacant possession, the indoor market traders stood firm. With support from the Save Ridley Road community campaign the traders formed an association, crowdfunded,  instructed solicitors and finally reached agreement with the owners to remain in occupation until development actually takes place and then with further benefits should that happen.

Larochette's planning application to re-develop the Shopping Village is progressing, with some further amendments lodged last week. Although Hackney states it is "set on negotiating maximum affordable workspace", its policy is not for 100% but only10% affordable workspace.

Larochette claims that construction access for the redevelopment will require closure of 28 market traders pitches. In parallel, the Council are  proposing new street traders licensing terms including condition 5.14 which, despite Hackney's denials to Hackney Citizen,  will enable them to cancel licences and move traders where necessary to facilitate redevelopment. At present developers have to negotiate with the affected traders, but the new Council rules will pull the rug from under traders' feet.

Ridley Road Shopping Village traders get a reprieve and an off-shore landlord

Last Friday 26th October was the day when traders in the Ridley Road Shopping Village were to be evicted. They had been given 14 days notice to get out, by the management company which collected the rents in the covered market. Many of the traders have been there for years. 

But, following an effective community campaign, instead of changing the locks that day the management company handed back its lease to the owners of the building  - Larochette Real Estate Inc, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The Village traders now have an off-shore company landlord.

Larochette had bought the site for £6.5million in November 2016. Little is known about Larochette itself but it's UK contact address is also the registered office of Rainbow Properties Limited. Rainbow's director, Guy Ziser, is also a director of two other companies (Neuva and Rosetree) which in 2015 appeared to have shareholdings in a British Virgin Islands company called Maple Ash limited.

Image of the planned redeveloped Ridley Road Shopping Village, designed by Jestico and Wyles, who also designed 57East - the tower next to Kingsland Station - which can be seen in the background of this image

Rainbow is seeking planning permission to turn the Ridley Road Shopping Village into offices and shops plus 10 "high quality duplex apartments"  ( AKA luxury flats - Ed.) on the 1st and 2nd floors and new third floor.  

Rainbow's Planning Statement describes the Ridley Road Shopping Village as already vacant. In fact the Village is occupied by about 20 traders on the ground floor, about 60 artists on the 1st and 2nd floors and provides storage for barrows and stock for the market's street traders.

Some traders panicked when they got the eviction notice and held a "fire sale" of their stock and left

Rainbow's redevelopment plans first came to public attention during the DalstonArts150 open studios event last September when the artists announced they had been asked to vacate by 31st December . Next there was a police raid, when drugs were found at one of the units. The management company then issued an eviction letter to all of the traders. Its letter referred to a discussion with Hackney and the police regarding a Closure Order, and a police notice being served on management, so that "We have no alternative but to CLOSE...in any event our landlord's intention is to demolish the building shortly".

In fact there was no Closure Order  - the police had simply required the management company to meet conditions which would reduce local crime. Hackney Mayor Glanville was quick to express concern, describing the managers action as "misleading and a betrayal...an excuse to close the market early". But the managers did not meet the police requests nor withdraw the traders' eviction notices.  

When news of the 14 day eviction notice got out, there was a public outcry. Within days a petition had been signed by over 8,000 people expressing  disgust at the traders' treatment. A deputation of traders went to Rainbow's offices to complain about their treatment. 

The traders formed an Association and instructed solicitors who informed the management company and Rainbow of the traders legal right to a minimum 6 months notice and that they "are not required to and are unwilling to give up possession". A Court injunction application was threatened.

And so, instead of evicting the traders last Friday, the management company handed back its lease to the owner, Larochette Real Estate Inc., which has now become the new landlord of the traders remaining in business.

Image of the planned redeveloped Ridley Road Shopping Village with front ground floor shops and luxury flats above

One exception to business tenants security of tenure is where the landlord intends to redevelop the property and cannot reasonably do so with the tenants in occupation. Redevelopment requires planning permission and so the local planning policies for Ridley Road market, and whether planning permission will be granted, are critical to these traders' futures.

Image of the planned redeveloped Ridley Road Shopping Village with rear ground floor offices and luxury flats above

The Shopping Village is just one of the sites in Ridley Road which is potentially facing re-development.  We have already seen one planning application granted for luxury flats - although this was later overturned by the Courts. Other applications are in the pipeline.

Whilst many of the buildings in Ridley Road would benefit from refurbishment, it is quite a different thing to replace the small affordable units, and market traders’ storage facilities, with unaffordable offices and luxury flats. 

It wont be the first time Ridley Market traders have been told to "get out".  Our local community has battled for years to keep our street market .The community must remain vigilant and active if the type of affordable street market we currently have -"the beating heart of Dalston" -  is to continue.

UPDATE: 1st November 2018: This piece in the Hackney Gazette reports that Rainbow have now taken over management of the Ridley Road Shopping  village ,  that "Traders will now stay for another six months at least" and that Mayor Glanville has informed Rainbow to revise their planning application because "the renovation should benefit existing traders and local residents". 

Ridley Road Shopping Village traders given 4 days to get out

Ridley Road Shopping Village traders were shocked and dismayed today to learn that their off-shore landlord, Larochette Real Estate Inc., requires them to vacate their shops in the covered market by Saturday 20th August. None of them have anywhere else to continue their businesses, store their stock or earn a living.

Save Ridley Road has called for the community to attend the Ridley Road Shopping Village at 12 noon this Saturday 20 August to protest about the way in which the traders have been treated by Larochette and Hackney.

Traders have requested a meeting with Larochette and Hackney Council to clarify why they are now being told at this late stage to get out and why previous promises are now being broken.

The news follows months of attempts by the traders, with support from Save Ridley Road campaigners,  to engage and cooperate with Larochette, which is refurbishing the building, and with Hackney Council which has agreed to take over management under a new lease when the works are complete. Traders feel they have been misled and treated with contempt.

Last March Larochette and Hackney Council attended a meeting called by traders to discuss the refurbishment plans. They were then sent contact details for all the traders who had confirmed that they wanted to continue their businesses during the refurbishment and requests for information about the arrangements. Larochette replied to traders stating that they would be offered alternative units "throughout the refurbishment works" and that they would be "simultaneously granted a new agreement with Hackney for a permanent unit" in the refurbished building.  In June Larochette issued Notices to Quit their existing units on 20 August and confirmed that "the ground floor will remain open a least in part with enough capacity to accommodate all existing traders". 

Letters continued to be sent on behalf of traders on 7 July and 2 August to Larochette and Hackney confirming their wish to continue their businesses and requesting copies of the proposed agreements for remaining in occupation during and after the refurbishment and for details of the plans. No agreements have been forthcoming from either Larochette or Hackney.

Hackney has confirmed that it appointed two officers to deal with the arrangements and who are said to have been "proactively building relationships with traders". Larochette have also stated that it was in contact with Hackney "every other day" and on 12 August Hackney informed traders that they did not need to vacate their existing units on 20 August. Hackney's Cabinet member, Cllr Fajan-Thomas, replied to the press that “We have also received assurance from the current landlord Larochette that they can continue trading from the Shopping Village." 

But today traders learned, not from Larochette or Hackney, but from their new Green Party local  Councillor Zoe Garbett who has been assisting them, that Larochette has written to her saying that traders must vacate their shops on 20 August so it can undertake work to "reconfigure the space" on the ground floor. In effect traders have now been told that they have only four days notice to get out, despite the promises they'd been relying on. They have nowhere to go and no certainty of being able to return to the Shopping Village at any time in the future.

Traders have always emphasised their reluctance to vacate their existing business units without firm assurances to secure their futures. "Clarification", they wrote, "would avoid a potential for a dispute and disruption of the [refurbishment] plans". But their attempts to engage with Larochette and Hackney have failed and their futures are more precarious now than when they first raised concerns last March.

Save Ridley Road have called for the community to attend the Ridley Road Shopping Village at 12 noon this Saturday 20 August to protest about the contempt with which they are being treated by Larochette and Hackney.   

Background story:

The Shopping Village has long been a contested space. The owner Larochette, based in the Virgin Island tax haven, applied for planning permission in 2018 to convert the building into 10 luxury flats and offices. It demand that traders get out within 14 days. This was met with furious community resistance. Traders eventually secured leases, with no rent rises and with terms for compensation and a right to return when redevelopment eventually took place. 

A successful application was then made by campaigners, and granted by the Council, to designate the building as an "Asset of Community Value" because of its cultural uses ( There had been 60 artist studios upstairs but they have since been evicted so Hackney can rent space there for its  Market Office. Ed.) and because it provided small ground floor units for independent traders selling affordable specialist products, basement storage for market stallholders and the open forecourt open space used by the community.

Click here to Watch the short film "Ridley Road 2020 - a market under threat" It includes the story of the Shopping Village redevelopment battle and the other threats also facing the market

It was thought that traders future had been secured when Larochette then dropped their plans for redevelopment and agreed that Hackney could take over a management lease once refurbishment works were completed. Hackney said its management would secure the future of Ridley Road market for the traders and the community. 

Years of community planning, communication and local resistance has this week suffered a major setback with Larochette insisting the traders leave their ground floor units and Hackney revealing that in future it may only be offering short term licences with weekly charges linked to rocketing inflation (the CPI index). (  From what we know so far, it looks like Hackney is seeking to make a profit from this Asset of Community Value at the communities expense. Of which more later. Ed.)    

Who tore down #SaveRidleyRoad's public art work "Timeline of Resistance"?

#SaveRidleyRoad's public art work "Timeline of Resistance" was produced as part of the E8 Art and Craft Trail when local artists and makers exhibit work in their studios and publicly.  "Timeline of Resistance" extended over 6 metres, with original graphics, photos, text and a planned design. It was a collaborative work, curated and assembled by hands. It told a local community's story (Probably a global one too Ed.) of the last five years resisting evictions of traders and artists, the development of luxury flats and the gentrification of the Ridley Road Shopping Village indoor market. A film has been made of the public art works' creation. Here is the film's trailer:

The "Timeline of Resistance" had been exhibited along the builder's hoardings, fronting the Ridley Road Shopping Village which is still undergoing refurbishment by its off-shore owner Larochette. 

At 5am on Friday 8th December, #SaveRidleyRoad's public art work was torn down and removed in a van marked Hackney Cleansing. It is believed to have been taken away to be burned in Edmonton's Incinerator. ( I never even knew Hackney had a Cultural Cleansing team! Ed). 

An official request has been made, by Dalston's Green party Councillor Zoe Garbett, for the Council to explain who took the decision to tear down the art work, and why? It is now the subject of a formal Council investigation.

Hackney says that it has so far spent over £130,000 subsidising its Shopping Village 'project'. It has employed additional staff and produced a booklet of 250 regulations to control future trading. ( Before its even acquired the property! Ed.) But there has been very little, if any, visible benefit from the money for the traders themselves. The traders have made the 5 demands shown in this blog post.

Hackney decided back in January 2022 that it would take a long lease of the Shopping Village once Larochette's refurbishments are completed. It will in due course be paying lease rents of around £500K including VAT to the owner which is based in the British Virgin Islands secretive tax haven. It has now emerged that Hackney intends to run the Shopping Village for profit, in line with its commercial properties. 

Following a community application, in December 2019 Hackney designated the Shopping Village as an Asset of Community Value, in part because of its cultural uses by creative businesses on the upper floors.  But in February 2022, when refurbishment work began,  the 60 artists were evicted. Now, Hackney has negotiated to take a lot of the upper floor studio space for its own Market Services offices.  There will be much less, if any, affordable space left for cultural uses and artists in the future.  The Asset of Community Value will have been substantially damaged by the Council's own financial interests.

NEWSFLASH :  The Council has said it will be consulting on its latest "Markets Strategy 2023-2028" to start running all of Hackney's street markets for profit under the Food Act.  (See Market Strategy paragraph 6.5 here Ed.). If the "for profit" policy is passed not only will the market become less affordable but all street market stallholders will lose their existing legal rights to be consulted, to challenge excessive fees and charges, and to appeal against unfair treatment to an independent Magistrates Court. Hackney will become the sole Judge, Jury and Executioner of Hackney's markets and its stallholders.

Hurrah! Victory for Save Ridley Road campaign

Save Ridley Road campaigners are celebrating. Not only has Larochette Real Estate Inc, which owns the Ridley Road Shopping Village in Dalston, finally dropped its redevelopment plans for luxury flats and offices, but yesterday Hackney Council passed a resolution to acquire a lease of the ground and basement floors, once Larochette's refurbishment of the building is complete, and to then improve facilities for the small independent businesses and market stallholders there. Leading #SaveRidleyRoad campaigner, Danny Heyward, said "This is a major victory for the many local people who have been contesting the planned redevelopment for over three years and wanting recognition and improvement of this valuable community resource". 

For many years the building thrived as a ground floor covered market hall for 60 traders with basement storage for market stallholders and affordable studios on the first and second floor for around 60 artists. But in recent years it had become increasingly run down through lack of investment and the deterioration continued whilst awaiting a decision on its planned  redevelopment as upmarket flats and offices. The building had been acquired in 2016 by Larochette Real Estate Inc., a development company registered in the overseas secrecy jurisdiction - the British Virgin Islands tax haven. 

Hearing the news, Mohammed Barry, speaking for the Shopping Village Traders Association, said "Business has become so very difficult in recent years but this news gives us hope there may soon be refurbishment, better management and better conditions for traders and customers so we can revive the market. And we will need promotion to let our public know "We are back! Come and visit us!"  

The campaign had originally kicked off in October 2018 when the market traders were served with 14 days notice to get out. The artists' management company was also told to clear all the studios on the two upper floors by 31st. December. 

 

The campaign attracted media attention, like this TV news item, to highlight the plight of the traders

Through a vigorous & widely supported campaign of petitions, deputations, fund raising and negotiation the campaigners secured a stay of the evictions, and new leases for the remaining market hall traders, pending the outcome of Larochette's planning application for redevelopment.

Click here to Watch the short film "Ridley Road 2020 - a market under threat" It includes the story of the Shopping Village redevelopment battle and the other threats also facing the market

The campaigners then continued the fight by holding events, exhibitions and film shows raising public awareness of the continuing threats to the Shopping Village and by organising workshops to assist members of the community make their objections to Larochette's planning application. 

The campaigners also spearheaded the application for the Council to nominate the Shopping Village as an Asset of Community Value. The Council approved the ACV status in  December 2019.  "We demonstrated how retaining the business and cultural activities in the building supported the social well being and social interests of the community" said Bill Parry-Davies who lodged the ACV nomination "Happily, Hackney recognised those interests and has now agreed to take the lease which it says will secure their protection. We hope things will soon get better and help the revival of the market."

  

Larochette's redevelopment application was not renewed following the cyber-attack in 2020 when its planning application and countless other Council records were destroyed. (Maybe it has postponed the redevelopment whilst they invest in converting old Fulham Town Hall to an exclusive boutique hotel. They acquired that public asset "very very cheaply" Ed.)  In February 2021 Larochette made a new planning application - but this time it was simply to refurbish the building, with no plans for its redevelopment as luxury flats. Planning approval was granted on 23 November.

Hackney's Cabinet report records that the annual rents & charges it will pay to Larochette will be £406,000pa and that 90% occupancy of the small business and storage units would be required to meet these lease overheads. It is expected,  the report says, that the existing occupiers rents will have to increase -  not least to pay the rent on the Council's Market Services own offices which are moving in to replace some of the artists studios on the the first floor.  It remains to be seen whether the remaining artists on the upper floors will be able to afford to retain their studios. 

Danny Heywood added "The plans for refurbishment and improved facilities in the Shopping Village are very welcome. It feels like a win and a brighter future. But our Save Ridley Road group has no plans to disband".

Big trouble ahead for Ridley Road market traders

On Tuesday 3rd December the Save Ridley Road campaign is inviting local people to join them from 5pm for the unveiling of a new campaign banner followed with an evening of talks, music, dancing, laughter, food and drink in the Ridley Road Market Bar until late.

You will learn the latest situation concerning the indoor market traders who successfully battled the off-shore development company which tried to evict them from the Shopping Village on just 14 days notice. And how recently it gave just 3 days notice of its intention to lock-out the tenants using the basement storage units.

You will also learn about the community's application to Hackney Council to declare the Shopping Village an Asset of Community Value. The Shopping Village has been a longstanding community resource as a place for up to 60 small independent traders, as essential storage for street market traders, and for its cultural uses by 60 artists and creatives working on the upper floors. Its owner, Larochette, which is based in the British Virgin Islands secrecy jurisdiction, has applied for planning permission to turn the Shopping Village into luxury offices and flats.

And, if that wasn't enough trouble, you will learn of Hackney Council's emerging plans to impose new licensing regulations on Ridley Road's street market traders which run to 33 pages. One trader described the document as "101 ways to lose you licence". The changes include the Council's right to cancel street trading licences when required to enable private development. ( The Shopping Village developer claims that 28 pitches in Ridley Road will need to cease trading during the works Ed.).  Hackney have recruited new staff to implement these changes including their enforcer who is reported to have been dismissed from the Met Police for misconduct following allegations of "discreditable conduct" and of using bullying and harassing language and behaviour. Another  new manager is rumored to have had a career in privatising Council markets (I fear that this is not going to end well. Ed.)

Ridley Road Shopping Village traders face 80% rent rises and 40 pages of regulations

Ridley Road Shopping Village traders have been shocked to learn of Hackney Council's plans for them when it takes on a management lease from their current off-shore landlord, Larochette of the British Virgin Islands tax haven. Hackney say that traders will become merely licensees with none of the rights which business tenants usually have, that rents will rise by up to 80% in the third year and that they will have to comply with 250 trading regulations, as set out in its new 40 page booklet, or face enforcement action which could include the loss of their licences to trade and possible criminal prosecutions.

Larochette's plans to redevelop the building with luxury flats and offices had been scuppered when the building was declared an asset of Community Value, but it looked like the site would then remain derelict indefinitely.  After a 4 year battle with their landlord to stay in business, traders hopes were raised in January when Hackney announced a deal with Larochette that, if they refurbished the building,  Hackney would then take on a 14 year lease of the ground floor and basement. Hackney will also take on part of the first floor for its Market Services offices.

Larochette had served the traders with notices to quit expiring in August but, following earlier promises  that the businesses could continue during refurbishments, traders protests have now secured temporary shop units there whilst the work progresses in two phases.  However Larochette has still not paid them the compensation previously agreed for vacating their Units whilst refurbishments progressed or put up external signage that business is continuing.

This film clip shows part of the successful protest against the most recent attempt to evict the traders who now continue in business whilst the refurbishments progress. You can watch the full 8 minute film here:  Ridley Road.mov from Tony Price on Vimeo.

Hackney has now started informing traders of what it is offering them when it takes over. 80% rent rises for traders is likely because of the high rent which Hackney itself will have to pay Larochette. The lease rent is £400,000 annually plus VAT in the first year, with a later rent review agreed to be fixed to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI - a measure of inflation) rather than in line with local shop rents. The deal was recommended in a report presented by the Mayor of Hackney, and approved by his Cabinet in January 2022. At that time the CPI was 2% but is now running at over 10%. With the economy facing recession and with further austerity and severe decline in standards of living ahead, local shop rents are expected to decrease but the CPI is expected to rise further. (In other words, if predictions on the economy are true,  the Shopping Village rents will rise although trade will decline. Ed.)

Hackney has taken time to produce the new 40 page "Indoor Market Licence Conditions" which contains 250 regulations. They have many similarities with the conditions it produced recently for its street market stallholders ( see "A Licence for Slavery"). But there are critical differences. Instead of running the Shopping Village indoor market, like the Ridley Road street market, on a not for profit basis, the new regulations are implemented under the Food Act 1984 which has no restrictions on the Council from profiting from the undertaking or the terms which is can impose on traders and under which traders have no right of appeal against unfair enforcement action to an independent Magistrates Court. (Hackney's decisions are final. It becomes judge, jury and executioner. Ed).

It is not known what Larochette will charge Hackney for its 1st floor office space, but the remaining 1st floor studio work spaces are offered at rents calculated at £21.60 per square foot rising by 11% in the third year to £26.50 per square foot. But Hackney's proposed rents for the ground floor indoor market traders are much higher and seem to be calculated at around £149 square foot for new traders and it has told existing traders that, after an initial 5% increase, their rents will rise by 80% to that rate in year 3.

Hackney approved the community's application to designate the Shopping Village as an Asset of Community Value because of the cultural uses of the affordable studios on the upper floors, the 60 affordable Units for independent traders on the ground floor, the affordable storage units in the basement for market stall holders and because of the building forecourt's open space. Sadly, all the artists have since been evicted and their studios are to be replaced in part with Council offices, of about 60 independent traders only 18 still survive on the ground floor, the forecourt will no longer be used by traders and traders rents  will soon rocket. 

Will the building still qualify as an Asset of Community Value in future years? Will affordable and culturally diverse produce still be sold there? Or will it become an Asset of Gentrified Value selling expensive goods to a new demographic? And if the Council is unable to let 90% of the Units required to meet the rent to Larochette, will all of Hackney's street traders also face another hike in fees to meet the deficit in the Council's Market Services account?  (Those are the worries. History will be the judge. Ed.)