Church Street faces becoming a “wilderness” because Hackney Council is allowing a restaurant to move in, shopkeepers say.
The busy shopping street is currently home to dozens of independent businesses, but shopkeepers are fighting the decision to allow “The Good Egg” to set up shop in a Council-owned plot.
The restaurant will occupy no. 93, which was formerly a Ladbrokes.
Hackney Council has set the rent at £38,000 per year, but local business owners say this is too high.
A letter from Church Street shop owners to the Council’s Regeneration Committee said: “The fabric of the ‘Stokey’ community will degenerate as high rents force out independent retailers and the street is left with small to medium sized chains, pound shops, charity shops and void buildings.
“Those who cannot afford to leave will be forced to live or work in a dead zone that will increasingly become the haunt of late night and weekend revellers causing the breakdown of the community in which we live.”
Cllr Mete Coban said: “Neither the council or the ward councillors including myself would want to see local businesses squeezed.”
