Sue Hessel criticised the lack of consultation with local residents. Picture: Nigel Sutton.

Crouch End residents fear farmers’ market plans will ‘ruin Sundays’

by Tim Lamden Thursday, September 13, 2012
3:49 PM

Plans for a new farmers’ market in Crouch End have outraged residents who fear it would “ruin Sundays”.

Earlier this month, an application for a food and craft market to run each Sunday in the playground of Coleridge Primary School, in Crouch End Hill, was submitted to the council by local resident Kate Adnan, who lives down the road in Cromartie Road, Hornsey Rise.

But residents in the vicinity of the school have reacted angrily to the plans, fearing an influx of traders and visitors to the proposed market will lead to congestion and disruption in the residential area.

Tec Fawcett, secretary of CASCH Residents’ Association, said: “We are totally opposed to it. It will ruin Sundays in simple terms with the potential for 45 traders’ vans arriving, which will be a huge intrusion to the Sunday morning of a residential area.”

Under the plans, the market would run between 10am and 2pm, with traders arriving from 8.30am and leaving by 3.30pm.

The playground would provide enough space for 45 traders’ stalls, offering a range of produce, including meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, cosmetics and crafts.

Traders would have access to 19 parking spaces on the site but once those spaces are occupied visitors would be encouraged to park in nearby residential streets.

Mr Fawcett argued that residents who had spent years “battling” to have a controlled parking zone (CPZ) introduced in the area between Monday and Friday did not want to see that hard work undone by increased congestion from the market on a Sunday, when the CPZ does not apply.

He added: “I think it’s inappropriate, there are plenty of arts and crafts markets around here – the Ally Pally market seems far more appropriate because there’s plenty of parking.”

Sue Hessel, chairman of Haslemere Road Residents’ Association, criticised the lack of consultation with local residents over the plans.

She said: “This is the quickest way to get a community’s back up, you wrong foot an application if you don’t go to your neighbour first. You shouldn’t just put an application straight through to the council.”

A statement on Coleridge’s website said the school was “undecided” on the plans and “concerned about the effect on the local community”, adding: “Any planning permission that may have been sought is premature and was not submitted by the school.”