Hackney Council says it’s vital that changes are made to make the area safer but there’s one planned restriction market traders are deeply concerned about
Market traders have hit out at Hackney Council’s plans for new traffic controls in Dalston, as some vendors warn it could force them out of business.
In October the council put its proposals for a ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’ in Dalston out for final consultation, in a bid to curb “dangerous” traffic levels on residential roads. The measures, financed by nearly £3 million in Transport for London (TfL) funding, include new School Streets, a 24-hour bus gate and new pedestrian crossings in Dalston.
The policy is intended to stop vehicles using residential roads as shortcuts, otherwise known as “rat running”, and to make roads safer. Council and TfL data has recorded 119 collisions involving injury between 2020 and 2024 within the scheme’s boundaries. The council says there were 99 collisions in the last year alone.
But traders at the nearby Ridley Road market, which has been open since the late 1880s, say the restrictions will hurt their livelihoods and cause more congestion and pollution.
“We’re already on the ropes, and we don’t need any more thorns in our side,” said fruit and vegetable seller Jimmy Edwards. “We’re happy to see bike lanes put in, but don’t cut our legs off to get to work.”
The specific traffic measure causing uproar among traders is a ban on left turns from Ridley Road onto Dalston Lane. The council says this is to stop the market street being used as a cut-through between the A10 and Pembury Circus. The left-turn ban was opposed by 45 per cent of the 1,000 consultation respondents, and backed by 44 per cent.
Edwards told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the restriction would cut off traders’ usual delivery routes and force them onto already congested thoroughfares on Dalston Lane and Graham Road.
The bottlenecks would also mean fruit and veg traders like himself would have to take lengthy detours to reach wholesale hubs such as Spitalfields, which had long afforded them a competitive advantage compared to other markets.
“We’ve got an angle in the market where we can go late to Spitalfields and get better deals, which provide for the local community,” Edwards said. “I really do think there’s a potential it could shut down Ridley Road trade completely.”
He added that regular customers who bought wholesale from Ridley Road would still rely on cars to come and pick up heavy goods. “You can’t get 20 boxes of oranges and 10 boxes of bananas on a push bike,” Edwards said.
‘It’s not sensible at all’
Other traders echoed these fears and questioned the logic of the proposals, since they would continue to rely on motor vehicles to bring supplies to the market. Abdul Turkmani, who has run his stall since 2001, said: “How are you going to reduce pollution if instead of me driving for [a few] miles, you are making me drive an extra 10 miles?”
The council says the vast majority (83 per cent) of Ridley Road shoppers arrive on foot or by public transport, compared to 9 per cent coming by car or taxi. However, Abdul Alizadeh, who has sold rugs from Ridley Road for 15 years, argues that restrictions would mean customers coming from further outside the borough would simply “go elsewhere”.
“It’s not sensible at all, it’s just more pressure on traders, more difficulty for all of us. We’re going to lose more customers,” he told the LDRS.
Fishmonger Sikander Akram, 52, said he has traded from the historic bazaar for 30 years, but now fears the restrictions will force him to give up his stall. “I don’t know how to do anything else,” he said.
Akram and others criticised the council’s use of online consultations, rather than door to door outreach and public notices, highlighting that many long-standing traders have limited digital literacy or do not speak English as their first language.
However, the council said face-to-face engagement had long been “integral” to its approach, and that trader feedback had already influenced the Liveable Neighbourhood’s design.
The local authority told the LDRS one such example was officers’ decision to scrap proposed works at another junction, St Mark’s Rise, after traders said it was crucial for loading and unloading.
The council said officers had also set up a pop-up stand at Ridley Road and held four in-person drop-in sessions at Dalston CLR James Library during the first consultation period, along with distributing paper survey booklets with Freepost return envelopes.
Cllr Jacob Cable, Cabinet Member for Climate, Clean Air, Energy and Transport, said: “Every existing road accessing the market will remain open and fully accessible.”
He added that no decision had yet been made regarding the changes, and the council welcomed feedback from local residents, businesses and traders. Fewer than 6 per cent of people visiting Ridley Road market get there by car, Cllr Cable said.
“What has been lost in this debate around roads is the problem we are addressing. In the last year, this specific area in question saw 99 road traffic collisions, 60 of them involving pedestrians or cyclists, and of which five were children. That is what we are trying to fix here,” the cabinet member added.
The council said it would “actively consider tailored exemptions and access arrangements beside the market at specific times of day to support loading and operations”.
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