Buy Back Brixton – the political cards start to stack up as Abrams instructs council to fast-track market protection

Lambeth leader Martin Abrams secured the backing of national Green leader Zack Polanski at a rally in Clapham Park yesterday, and revealed he had instructed the council to fast-track protection for Brixton’s markets.

The application – to register Brixton Village and Market Row as Assets of Community Value – was lodged with the council by the markets’ traders and the Advocacy Academy, who also confirmed this week, that they had submitted a ‘competitive bid’ for the purchase of the market.

Abrams who pledged his full backing to Buy Back Brixton at last week’s really, said he had told council staff to “pull out every stop to process it as quickly as possible,” adding that the last such application in the borough came “over a decade ago.”

The national Green leader was in Lambeth on Wednesday and joined the campaign for a photograph behind the Buy Back Brixton banner and chatted with Kat Miles of the Brixton Traders and Community Association, who has run a shop in the village for 15 years with family roots in Brixton stretching back to the 1950s.

Miles was upbeat after meeting the two leaders and told Brixton Buzz:

It’s imperative for local and national government to be supportive of local initiatives like Buy Back Brixton.

This is potentially a test ground for what could happen on a nationwide scale.

– Kat Miles, Brixton Traders and Community Association

Under the Localism Act 2011, listing a building as an Asset of Community Value gives a recognised community group the right to bid for it when it is sold – pausing the sale for up to six months so the group can raise money and prepare an offer.

It does not, on its own, stop a sale going through, however with a surge in solidarity following last week’s Brixton rally, as well as cross-party political support for the market to become a community asset, it seems anything might be possible.

Numerous Labour figures including Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, councillors Nanda Manley-Browne, John Paul Ennis and David Bridson have taken to social media to urge the public to back the petition and contribute to the crowdfunder.

Separately Lambeth’s Deputy Mayor Cllr Judy Best told Brixton Buzz that the borough’s Liberal Democrat group are fully supportive of the campaign.

There are currently over 37,000 signatures backing Buy Back Brixton and approximately £560,000 raised so far.

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Buy Back Brixton Petition

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Buy Back Brixton Demo

“We will pull out every sinew”: Abrams pledges council backing as hundreds rally to Buy Back Brixton

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Brixton Village, Market Row, Pope’s Road, Lost In Brixton, & Ton Of Brix – Taylor McWilliams and Hondo’s Brixton Empire

Photography:

Buy Back Brixton: Mike Urban

Clapham Park: Phil Ross