BMTRA

Thousands demanded it, now it’s arrived. (OK, I lied about the thousands).

Often irreverent, hopefully informative, the blog aims to keep you up to date with events on and around Broadway Market, E8.

It’s open to all, and will be moderated and maintained by James Ó Nuanáin, the new Secretary of the Broadway Market Traders’ and Residents’ Association. The blog is the creation of Andrew Boff, Bmtra’s External Relations Officer.

No toxic and libellous posts, please, though you cannot technically libel a public body (Hackney Council springs to mind). Anyway, humour works better—so does brevity.

First the administrative stuff. Louise Brewood, the visionary who created the Saturday Market (and continues to run it), stood down as Chair at the annual meeting on 21 February. Louise will be key to the next stage of the market’s development. I was elected Chair. Andrew Boff stood down as Secretary to allow James to take over the administration of both Bmtra and the Saturday Market. Our new Treasurer is Jo Francis, a resident.

The residents’ representatives on the executive committee are: Bob Mason, Andrew Boff, Don Smith, Patrick McCool, and Leo Lawson-O’Neill. Representing the shopkeepers are: Stephen Selby (Off Broadway), Gursel Kulahadir—known to his English-speaking friends as Bob (Broadway Wines); Barley Massey (Fabrications) and Andy Heeps (Art Vinyl). The Saturday market businesses are represented by Dave White (Ragtop) and Roy Beddows (The French Store Cupboard). Louise will be co-opted as Market Manager.

Executive meetings will be held once a month and will be open to everyone who lives or works in the Broadway Market area. Notices of times and places will be posted on the web and in the market.

We’re agreed that we need to spend far more time on community issues—safety, housing, streets, lights, parking and so on. The immediate issue is the Council’s Zone J parking review (plans and forms can be fownloaded from the Council’s websiute. If you want to have a say, the deadline is 28 March. We’d also like to start work on a proposal for a new street layout which would preserve access for cars and lorries, but make Broadway Market a far more friendly place for pedestrians and cyclists. And there’s the desperate need to improve facilities for teenagers in the community.

The Saturday market is achieving its aim: the regeneration of Broadway. On Saturday the place buzzes. Enough fairy dust sticks to attract people back during the week. The street has become a London landmark. Louise will build on that success, and it means that we need to put the organisation on a firmer footing. Thanks to Andrew Boff relations with the markets department are beginning to improve, the Council has accepted that we manage the market while their officers regulate it, and we are at last negotiating a partnership agreement to formulate this relationship. Bmtra has begun building the infrastructure to support this.

We hope everyone will join in.

Andy Veitch, Chair, Bmtra.