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Syd, our local Armenian butcher, sells high-quality, good-value meat to chefs like Skye Gyngell and Simon Hopkinson, the local council estate and the groomed mothers of Brook Green. But on Saturday, he is packing up his unpretentious shop after 34 years, having failed to agree a sale price for it from Hammersmith and Fulham council.
His (independent) valuation was just over half the price the council demanded in a letter.
Annoyed by the council, intimidated by its tone, he decided to shut down rather than engage in costly negotiations. He is understandably emotional about the issue, as selling meat to this community has been his life. Not that anyone from the council has actually been in to see him. The council explains that it has a duty to get a "market value" for the shop, even though current market valuations have resulted in three other stores lying empty in the same street for well over a year..
And so another small shopkeeper disappears; another corner of London will spend its money at the nearest Tesco. The residents have lost out to the rigidity of their bureaucratic servants, who so easily disconnect with the people they are supposed to represent. Thus the vast Westfield shopping development steamrolls its way in ? Australian property developers get called back by councils ? and the local butcher sinks.
The council is fond of saying, "It's more complicated than that" if you ask it about Syd. But it isn't. The residents want a butcher, and a local butcher is indisputably a good thing. But Syd cannot dazzle the council with money as Westfield can, and a small social good ? surely the key purpose of a local council ? gets buried under limited thinking.
In some ways Syd's story is a microcosm of the Heathrow expansion debate. Londoners don't want it but the Government will not explore other options. The fear of any loss of money overrides everything ? from the environment to the views of Londoners. A government, national or local, which prioritises economics above all else has lost touch with the desires of those who elected it, and is bound to make tragic mistakes, small and great. This is worse than careless, as we can see with Heathrow. It is corrupt.
The completely bogus consultation over Heathrow has resulted in a massive loss of trust in the Government. And if Hammersmith and Fulham doesn't engage with Syd before Saturday, it will be a failure of local democracy.
Catherine Ostler is editor of ES Magazine
