Fancypants Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 Why I'm determined to stop bookies taking over our high streets Amid the fuss about casinos, the spread of betting shops has been ignored. Nick Mathiason explains why his own neighbourhood is fighting back Sunday May 13, 2007 The Observer It was not hard to guess why the owner of Blanks, our thriving local DIY store, closed down. Near to retirement, the former shopkeeper was made an offer he couldn't refuse. The word is that he now spends his days in sunny Mallorca. Which is fair enough, except that now that we know the full story you could argue that the shopkeeper sold the community he once served down the river. Within days of Blanks's closure last October, an A4 sign appeared on its glass front. It said that Shaun Pridmore, the owner of a dozen betting shops in the Home Counties, was applying to open a betting shop. Article continues -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The trouble is there are already two on our scuzzy east London high street, which is less than half a mile long. Anyone with half a brain can see the downside to that. Amazingly, local magistrates didn't. Last Friday they agreed with Pridmore and let him open his shop. While journalists have obsessed over the introduction of new supercasinos, the less glamorous bookmaking industry has been quietly opening up more and more high-street shops. Within the M25 there are now 2,300 - up 600 in three years. Pridmore is merely a cog in a big, national game. Britain is seeing a surge in betting shops, fuelled by small independent operators who snap up any available units. The aim is to build up chains of around a dozen before selling out to the big boys - William Hill, Gala Coral and Ladbrokes. It's a trick Pridmore has accomplished once already. I live just off the Chatsworth Road, parallel to what has become known as the Murder Mile in Clapton, Hackney. Welcome to Crack Town. It sounds grim, and in many ways it is. But our family love where we live. Someone once told me that Hackney is like a part of the north transplanted into London. It's true. The east of London is everything you'd expect - friendly, vibrant and open. But Chatsworth Road has serious problems. Crack is dealt in and around the street, with inevitable consequences that have hit close to home. Last year my wife was mugged on the Chatsworth Road. Her best friend was attacked nearby a few years ago. Earlier this year my three children in our local school were forced to stay inside at home time while police chased a gun-wielding youth. Oh, and Chatsworth Road was the street where a four-year-old was hit in the knee in a drive-by shooting a few years ago. In a street with few vacant shops and showing flickering signs of renewal, the prospect of a third betting shop left most people - the business community, the headteacher, our MP, the mayor, black, white, brown, young and old - open-mouthed with fury and frustration. The new betting shop would be almost opposite a primary school, in front of a nursery and right in the middle of a community with a huge population of young people, many on benefits. The two existing bookies are already magnets for anti-social behaviour. Drunk homeless people gather outside begging for change from punters. And the immediate vicinity has the stench of urine. Police recently raided a betting shop a mile away and detained several on drug-related charges. This anti-betting fury has been acknowledged by the local council, which is now lobbying central government about the predicament in which it finds itself. Hackney has 95 betting shops - the second-highest figure in London; the national average for a local authority is 20. Under current rules, the council is powerless to stop their spread. Betting licences are decided by magistrates, who rarely turn down proposals. Sometimes bookies have to apply to the council to get a change-of-use consent on a particular shop, but the planning laws are based on a strict legal framework that makes it impossible for councils, even if they wanted, to reject proposals. Why? Because, amazingly, betting shop are categorised in the same 'use class' as banks, building societies and other services - a neat achievement by the betting industry, which always seems to have the ear of government and gets more or less what it wants. I know this better than most as I have been reporting on it for the past eight years, seeing government ministers schmoozed by members of the industry at sporting events. I have seen how the introduction of highly-addictive virtual casinos in betting shops (known as fixed-odd betting terminals) has given bookies windfall profits. The ending of a tax on punter's winnings has also contributed to a surge in bookmakers' profits. Dominated by three companies, high-street bookies make profits of more than £2.5bn - a £500m increase in three years. And in September new laws will lift the last remaining restriction - the demand criteria. Bookies will be allowed to open up as many shops as they want so long as they don't prey on the vulnerable or are associated with crime. Stand by for lift-off. The media has been obsessed with the prospect of new casinos, revelling in how the Labour government and in particular Tessa Jowell, the minister responsible for gambling, has tied herself in knots over her cack-handed approach to gambling reform. We have all missed a trick. This is not about some nimby middle-class obsession; we already have two betting shops in our back yard. It is about having the power to shape a community for the better. Betting shops, particularly in poor areas, give nothing back. They are a financial sponge. Defending his proposal, Pridmore says that he is investing £200,000 in the area and will generate five jobs. But any business can do that - and there was no shortage of them interested in taking over the former DIY store. But the new landlord knows that a number of betting shops covet the unit and will pay whatever it takes to get it. His rent is set accordingly. We also know that £9m is spent by some of the most vulnerable people in our community in the existing betting shops. Despite all this, magistrates last Friday decided to grant Pridmore a licence for a third shop on Chatsworth Road. The three magistrates - who live nowhere near Clapton - ruled on the future of our street on narrow legal competition grounds. I was told that the Thames Court magistrates have not rejected a betting shop proposal in living memory. The best thing about all this is that it has reawakened the potential for what at the moment is a down-at-heel thoroughfare. We know we could have better, and know how we could make it so. Ultimately, the magistrates charged with shaping our communities refuse to think about the big picture, fearing appeals from well-resourced companies - betting businesses tend to get what they want these days. Except that our community will not lie down. We are now looking to appeal. There are better things to do in life than trawl through case law and organise surveys, but our children won't forgive us if we quit rather than fight for a better neighbourhood. nick.mathiason@observer.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downsized Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 Unfortunately another example of Hackney Council's incompetence and lack of effectiveness in helping the local community... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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