Market bosses tell Covent Garden traders they can't sell flag souvenirs
Traders at Covent Garden have told of their outrage over "ludicrous" new regulations banning them from selling items displaying the Union Jack.
With only two weeks to go until the royal wedding, a number of traders in the Apple Market area - popular with tourists looking for souvenirs and gifts - have been sent a letter ordering them to stop selling merchandise displaying the flag immediately.
The order is said to have come after a market official took objection to a handbag which included a flag design.
The letter, from Covent Garden bosses Capco, reads: "Clarification has been received from Covent Garden Area Trust regarding the selling of tourist related items.
"They have informed me that the selling of any items displaying the Union Jack is not permitted from the barrows. Please remove said items immediately."
Traders branded officials "unpatriotic" for sending the letters just before the royal wedding on April 29.
Lee Hathaway, who runs a magic and joke stall on one of the barrows, said: "It's ludicrous. Tourists come to Covent Garden to buy things with the Union Jack on, they've coming here for years.
"It's so difficult to make a living at the moment, then your products are restricted as well. It seems a bit unpatriotic in the lead-up to the royal wedding."
The letter, dated April 12, does not give a reason for the decision, but Mr Hathaway said he feared that market bosses are trying to oust traders on the old-fashioned barrows to replace them with up-market boutique-style stands.
He added: "This is the latest in a long line of things."
Stall owner Sonia Bicker, 32, said: "It's very bad. Why not, why can't we use Union Jacks? The market bosses are being over-controlling.
"Ahead of the royal wedding and now when business is a bit quiet - foreigners love the Union Jack, it's absolutely the wrong time."
Managers at Savage, a shop specialising in T-shirts, said they had heard about the new regulations but they have not been told to stop selling products bearing the Union Jack.
Kas Basnet, who runs the shop, said: "We're opposed because tourists like the Union Jack. If we weren't allowed to sell Union Jacks it would be really bad for us because tourists always ask what we have with the Union Jack, it's a big market."
A spokesperson for Covent Garden London said: "Union Jack products have not been banned from Covent Garden. The East Colonnade market traders have a clear directive that products sold on their stalls need to be of a high standard but despite this, low quality products displaying Union Jacks have recently been on sale and it is these items that the traders have been asked to remove.
"We remain happy to support the sale of high quality patriot products in the heart of Covent Garden."
As well as Covent Garden, Capco also owns the Earls Court and Olympia exhibition centres, and properties around Regent Street and Piccadilly.
It has valued Covent Garden market at £592million.
