Covent Garden Stays Where It Is
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From our Parliamentary Correspondent
AT the urging of the Government, the House of Lords last week threw out an amendment to the Covent Garden Bill—accepted the week before—which would allow the Market Authority to recommend another site if they were unable to provide adequate market facilities on the present site.
One of the points put forward by the supporters of the original amendment was that traffic congestion would not eased by putting the new market on the site covered by the old. But last week Viscount Kilmuir, the Lord Chancellor, claimed that traffic difficulties could be overcome. The appalling congestion on the roads in and around the market was not the result of the volume of traffic coming in and out, he said, but because there was nowhere, except on the streets or pavements, for the market vehicles to be parked to unload and load produce.
Once the vehicles could be got inside for unloading, waiting and loading for dispatch, the traffic would not be greater than it would be with any other form of commercial activity which would be there if the market were moved to another site.