A livelihood on the line' Fishmongers in battle to save ancient market

It is a mismatched contest: a handful of east London fishmongers taking on the phenomenally wealthy City of London Corporation.

- Joanna Partridge

But the traders and a food poverty charity have teamed up to battle the local authority over its plans to close the capital's ancient fish and meat markets for good.

The corporation announced the closure of Smithfield and Billingsgate markets late last year, when it pulled the plug on a planned £1bn relocation to a new site at Dagenham in east London. The decision will bring an end to centuries of meat and fish trading in the capital.

Three fishmongers from Ridley Road market in Hackney, east London, say they depend on Billingsgate for their business and will go bust if it closes down. Along with their spokesperson, Alicia Weston, the founder of Bags of Taste, which teaches cooking skills to people living in poverty, they are fighting to stop parliament rubber-stamping the closures.

The corporation is the owner and operator of the sites but is not permitted to close down the markets independently. They were established by acts of parliament that fix them to their existing sites and can be closed only when parliament passes a private bill repealing the legislation and allowing the land to be used for other purposes.