Ditching re-location plans for Smithfield meat market could cause unintended problems

Following a vote by the City of London Corporation (which owns and operates the Smithfield site) to can the plan to relocate the historic meat market to Dagenham, there appears to be some suggestion that a legal challenge can be brought against the decision. 

This is because a study into the importance of the markets to London’s food supply which was demanded by the court earlier this year, has not yet been carried out. 

BMPA’s concern is that, despite the offer of compensation to multiple individual traders, the Corporation’s decision not to replace Britain’s largest wholesale meat market with a new, modern version will make supplying meat to small and medium businesses across the capital more expensive and less efficient by fragmenting and replicating operations that should remain centralised.