Nabma has received a press release from the Covent Garden Market Authority confirming that it has been announced that the date for the House of Lords hearing has been moved forward to March 20th 2006.

In December 2004 the Court of Appeal decided not to allow face to face trading of meat and fish at New Covent Garden Market. Following this decision the Authority and Defra each submitted petitions to the House of Lords seeking leave to appeal and in May this year this was granted unconditionally. The original date for this hearing was set for June 2006.

Jan Lloyd, CGMA Chief Executive, today said

"When the House of Lords gave consent to Defra and the Authority to appeal it did so unconditionally, which is quite rare.

The Authority has always believed that its case is strong, and indeed two previous court decisions supported this position. We have every reason to believe that we will be successful this time and welcome the fact that the decision as to whether traders at New Covent Garden Market can trade meat and fish face to face will happen sooner rather than later".

The contact for further information is Helen Evans on 020 7720 2211