The Romford masterplan is scheduled to be published in 2024, as reported in the meeting
The consultants working for Havering Council last revealed details of the city center masterplan in 2019. However, during a debate on the future of Romford Market last week, on November 23rd – triggered by the news that the council plans to eliminate Sunday trading – Havering’s new leadership indicated that an updated masterplan will be published next year.
In the debate about the market, the coalition of the Havering Residents’ Association and the Labour Party running the council rejected a Conservative motion to “establish a cross-party working group” that would help make plans to “protect and enhance” the market.
David Taylor, Conservative councillor for St. Edward’s ward in Romford, argued that the market could be improved “with the right people at the table”. But council leader Ray Morgon said Havering can no longer subsidize the market with £200,000 a year but is “actively working” on a masterplan to improve the entire city center.
In an attempt to limit a forecast £31 million budget gap in 2024-25, the council hopes that stopping Sunday trading at the ancient market, established by royal order in 1247, will save £30,000.
Cabinet member for regeneration, Graham Williamson, said that a public consultation on an updated masterplan, first commissioned under the Conservatives in 2017, will be launched “next year”. He rejected the idea of a cross-party working group as a “talking shop”.
In March 2022, shortly before the local elections, former Conservative leader Damian White claimed that the masterplan had been delayed for years due to the equally delayed local plan, which guides planning across the borough. However, the Romford Civic Society labeled the delay a “scandal” and warned that large developments are being approved before the city center masterplan, which would guide their size and design, is adopted.