Inside Out London: Council shamed

Greenhalgh: reduced to pleading "extra retail space"

Last night's BBC Inside Out programme is a must see for anyone wishing to understand what all the fuss is about when it comes to the Goldhawk Road row of shops that our Council and developers Orion wish to demolish, in order to construct 212 luxury flats on top of the next-door market. Against the evident pride and richness of the historic row of shops on Goldhawk Road was contrasted the bully-boy tactics of our Council and their property developer friends.

Shop owners from Cooke's pie & mash, Zippys Cafe and the fabric shops all explained, together with a local resident, the ways in which the Council had basically ignored them in their pursuit of the development. I was disappointed the programme missed the fact that Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh, who was reduced to saying that the "new units" the shops would be offered would have "extra retail space", had actually promised at this public meeting not to let the shops be demolished if the shop owners didn't want that.

That is one of the biggest broken promises of his time in office as far as Shepherd's Bush is concerned. And as the programme went on to point out, the shop keepers themselves will be unable to pay the rent in the new modern units - having been forced from being freeholders to tenants in a luxury premium rate development. But who cares about that when there's millions to be made.

Watch it - and remember that there are now only two things that can save this historic piece of London: the judicial review on May 15-16, or the prospect of Ken Livingstone taking over from Boris Johnson. I'm no fan of Ken, personally, but it's quite clear that he seems to be the last hope for the Market.