18 September 2020
In light of a joint public statement from developers Delancey and Southwark Council as well as marketing literature circulating in Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre claiming relocation for traders who sadly do not have relocation to this day, Latin Elephant would like to clarify:
As a registered, not-for-profit charitable organisation fully credited by local independent traders and residents in Elephant and Castle, we have always carried our work in the spirit of transparency and accountability.
Our research indicates that to this day around 40 existing small independent traders will no longer be trading the area, as a result of the redevelopment. Detailed information on the specific circumstances of each trader can be found here.
In their joint public statement, Delancey and Southwark Council are saying that all qualifying traders have been relocated. Despite this Southwark Council’s website, last updated in August 2020 and accessed on 18 September 2020, acknowledges that “there are 33 eligible traders remaining.”
In January 2018, Southwark Council recognised that 130 small independent businesses were trading inside the red-line of the development. This figure suddenly dropped to 79 after a FoI submitted a year later (info on same link) and coincided with Delancey and Southwark’s eligibility criteria which excluded long-standing small businesses.
In their statement, Southwark and Delancey acknowledge only 40 existing independent traders have been relocated (plus three outside the process), leaving around 40 traders who have been trading at least since January 2019 (as per the S106 agreement) without alternative premises.
A promotional board sourced by Delancey to promote those traders who have been relocated sadly includes some traders who are facing displacement in a week and are still actively seeking support for alternative relocation.
We want to reiterate our work is to advocate for every independent business to get relocated within the area. This has been discussed several times with Southwark Council and Delancey. Latin Elephant has made significant efforts to enforce transparency and accountability by carrying out independent reliable research and will continue to work in a constructive way to support the local community.