Press Release for immediate release:
Contact Joe Peacock, Birmingham Friends of the Earth, 0121 6326909 campaigns@birminghamfoe.org.uk
Green campaigners are stressing the vital role of Birmingham’s markets to the city’s independent businesses and adding their voices to the campaign to save them.
The Wholesale Markets not only provide fresh produce directly to the Bullring Markets, which throng with shoppers every week of the year, but also supply many of our city’s local independent shops and restaurants. From the fruit and veg you bought from the corner shop on your way home, to the balti you ate last weekend, chances are it came from our historic markets.
Between these myriad of businesses scattered across the city and region, the Wholesale Markets directly support thousands of jobs, livings and lives.
But all this is at risk, because Birmingham City Council wants the Wholesale Market traders out, so that the land upon which theirs and thousands of other livelihoods depend on, can be sold off to the highest bidder. Market traders, shop owners and restaurateurs may be forced to travel hundreds of miles to gather fresh food for their businesses, and to provide for the city’s people.
BFoE Climate Change campaigner Robert Pass stated “When the council is supposed to be reducing the city’s carbon footprint, this is hardly very sustainable, and will generate massive costs, for which ordinary Brummies will end up paying the price, not only with their pockets, but also with their health too.
“No markets in Birmingham means no access for many people to their only source of healthy fresh food at a price they can afford. It is one of the last such facilities in the whole of the UK and we should be preserving it.”
Planning campaigner Ben Mabbett added “The Bullring Markets have been the lifeblood of Birmingham for over a thousand years, feeding generations of Brummies, and whilst market buildings may come and go, the vital service our markets provide is the same as it’s always been.
“In an age of supermarkets and their claims of amazing value, our markets still put them to shame when it comes to providing affordable, fresh and healthy food to Birmingham’s population.”
That’s why Birmingham Friends of the Earth is proud to be backing the Support Our Markets campaign. We want to see a vibrant market at the heart of our city, a place that not only feeds our bellies, but feeds the city’s soul, just like it has done for the last thousand years. We want to see the market; Brum’s Original Super Market.
ENDS
Notes for the editor
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Birmingham Friends of the Earth campaigns on many environmental issues on a local, national and international level. They hold regular campaigns meetings on Monday evenings at 7.30pm: https://birminghamfoe.org.uk/
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More information about our work on local food and shops is available on the website https://birminghamfoe.org.uk/local-food-shops
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The Birmingham Mail is running a campaign to Support the Markets with an online petition http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2011/08/23/support-our-markets-shoppers-urged-to-write-to-council-leader-mike-whitby-97319-29287243/
