North End Road has been tipped by Hammersmith and Fulham Council as an area for economic development.

At the first meeting of the council’s newly formed policy and accountability committee (PAC) for economic regeneration, housing and the arts the area in Fulham was highlighted as one of two places for immediate focus, along with Bloemfontein Road in Shepherd’s Bush.

Henrietta Crentsil, 60, has lived in the borough since the early 1970s and welcomes plans to regenerate the area.

She said: “It would be great to bring more people into the area. While I can’t imagine it ever being as lively as it was in the glory days I would love to see it busier,” she said.

Ms Crentsil praised the recently launched market at Jerdan Place at nearby St. John’s Church and said it would be good to see a similar variety of world food come to the North End Road market.

Henrietta Crentsil is hoping the plans will bring more people to North End Road.

Haberdashery stall owner Maggie McQuade, 58, hoped the plans would make the area more friendly for pedestrians.

“You have shops coming out onto the street and then the market on the other side of the pavement,” she said. “When you have mums with pushchairs it’s just too narrow.”

She added that parking was another major problem preventing people from visiting the market more often and that the area would benefit from more clothes shops.

However, Matthew Horton, who has lived in the area for a year, believes it is already busy enough, especially on weekends.

“It’s Tuesday afternoon at the moment and it’s fairly busy, on Fridays and Saturdays it gets too crowded.”

Mr Horton, 34, praised the quality of many of the vendors, particularly the many greengrocers and Dickenson’s butcher, and said he would like to see a greater variety of stores in the market rather than supermarkets and betting shops.

PAC chairman, Ben Coleman, added: “We want to change things for the better with residents, not make decisions behind closed doors. At our first PAC meeting (one July 1), residents said that breathing new life into the high street really mattered to them.”