“Balham is my 'village' and I use it
daily for shopping, dining and community engagement,” said Kevin Fitzpatrick of
Fieldhouse Road, Balham.
“The addition of yet another betting shop will add nothing positive.”
He's talking about a planning application submitted by Coral Bookmakers on
May 2. The proposed location is on Balham Station Road, replacing a dry
cleaners and directly next to The Moon Under Water pub.
What's more, a gambling arcade, Cashino, is just down the road. The
close proximity of these businesses is giving both shop owners and residents a
cause for concern.
Have you recently noticed an increase in certain types of stores on your
high road? Odds are, you’ve seen new charity shops, betting shops and chicken
take-aways sprouting everywhere. It’s no coincidence, it’s happening all across
Britain.
In a report made by PricewaterhouseCoopers, between December 2012 and
February 2013, 77 new betting shops opened across Britain - and presently there
are almost 9,000 in total.
It’s got to the point where betting shop companies are apparently
fighting between themselves to take high street shop fronts. However, aside
from the owners of these businesses and their landlords, very few people are
pleased to see new bookmakers appearing.
Deborah Suggate filed a complaint about the planning notice. "It
already feels like running a gauntlet of drunks when passing by," she
wrote.
She added that the placement of the Coral Bookmakers is deliberate, to
prey on vulnerable people who frequent the pub and the gambling arcade.
However, there’s little any of those who disagree can do about it – and
it all comes down to how planning works.
A Class Act
All buildings in the UK have a Use Class dictating the use of the
building. Retail is in one class, restaurants and cafes are in another, and so
on. You require planning permission to change land from one class to another,
which can be denied, if the local authority feels it’s a bad idea.
However, you can convert a building to anything in the same class
without having to ask permission. The problem is, betting shops are categorised
so they’re in the same class as a lot of different business types – so anything
from restaurants to estate agents to banks can be turned into a betting shop.
Fortunately, the Balham dry cleaners that Coral wants to convert is of a
different Use Class, forcing the company to go through the Wandsworth Council
planning department. Still, many councils are looking into possible solutions
to stop betting shops (and other overly common businesses) from going out of
control.
An On-going Fight
The Greater London Authority put out a report in March showing concern
for the increased rate of shops closing on high roads. It cites shop diversity
as a requirement for good high street growth, and suggests that borough
councils gain stronger planning powers to limit too many of the same kind of
business from appearing.
The only defence councils have against betting shops is something called
the ‘Article 4 direction’. The rough idea is arranging a zone under special
circumstances, where certain types of building changes are required to submit a
planning application, even if they wouldn’t otherwise.
It won’t surprise you that getting clearance for an Article 4 is
lengthy, expensive and fraught with headaches.
In another borough of London, Merton Council did research into how
severely betting shops were affecting them. Funnily enough, Merton has one of
the lowest concentrations of betting shops in London.
"It's important to have a diverse high street,” said Councillor
Andrew Judge, a cabinet member for environmental sustainability and
regeneration.
“It's equally important that Merton's town centres meet the needs
of our residents and visitors.”
But councils are starting to fight back against the seemingly
unstoppable surge of unfavourable businesses. Multiple borough councils across
London have backed the idea of giving betting shops their own Use Class,
forcing them to go through the planning committee and giving councils and the
public a chance to refuse.
Mayor Boris Johnson is even trying to haul in the reins of betting shop
proliferation by demanding a change to the Gambling Act 2005, which presently
does nothing to prevent clustering of gambling establishments.
With Concerns Elsewhere
However, Wandsworth Council seem to be less concerned about the subject.
“From a planning perspective, it hasn’t appeared to be an issue,” said
Sarah Dixey, of Wandsworth Council planning department.
“Take-aways are more of a concern.”
Similar to Merton Council, Ms Dixey considered Wandsworth to have a low
concentration of betting shops, though a precise figure wasn’t given. As such,
they have no present interest in backing the lobby to have the law for the
betting shop Use Class changed.
“Our town centres are reasonable successful, with low numbers of
vacancies,” she added.
They do use the Article 4 direction, but for something entirely other
than high street management – the direction allows for them to conserve designs
on older houses.
So will the voices of the public be heard? Possibly. For standard
planning applications, Wandsworth has an average turnaround of eight weeks. At
time of writing, that means there are another four weeks for concerned locals
to have their say.
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