Councillor challenges bookies' chief over betting shop clusters

Publication date: Wednesday 20 June 2012

Betting shops are taking over our high streets in the poorest areas and that's not good for our communities.

This was the message from Haringey Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr Nilgun Canver when she and Tottenham MP David Lammy met with the Chief Executive of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) last week to address the issue of how betting shops are directly targeting the most deprived areas of Haringey.

In a walkabout up Tottenham High Road, Cllr Canver showed Dirk Vennix, the leading lobbyist of British bookmaking industry, the extent of betting shop clustering in Tottenham. They both spoke to traders and local residents about their impact on the high street.

Cllr Nilgun Canver said:

“We wanted Mr Vennix to come to Tottenham himself to witness the impact of clustering on streets in our deprived areas. We particularly wanted him to realise the extent to which the clustering is hampering our work around regeneration - both discouraging businesses from moving into the area and making it difficult to create a more diverse and vibrant high street, with more choice for local shoppers.”

Betting shops are taking over vacant high street units with their existing A2 classification meaning they don't need any planning permission or "change of use" consents to set up shop. This has been particularly evident in Tottenham High Road and Harringay Green Lanes. Tottenham High Road alone is home to 11 betting shops. The council has long lobbied for powers to limit the number of betting shops in any one area but is hampered from doing so by current legislation.

The council also argues that since the introduction of the Gambling Act 2005 it has become more difficult to restrict the proliferation of betting shops on high streets.

Cllr Nilgun Canver, who is also the Licensing Champion for the Local Government Association and has been looking into this matter for several years, said:

“We explained to Mr Vennix how the Gambling Act has failed to provide us as a Licensing Authority with sufficient powers to deal with the impact of gambling premises and the problems they bring. Their impact on the vitality of our high streets and the retail offer they provide alongside the damage they can do to some of our most vulnerable, deprived communities is significant. We really want him to acknowledge the problems and work with us to address them and I’m pleased that we’ll be meeting again soon to discuss our concerns.”

As part of his visit, Mr Vennix was shown figures of how betting shop clusters are associated with anti-social and criminal behaviour which further hampers regeneration and causes concern among residents and traders.

Haringey Council has long lobbied for change of use legislation in relation to betting shops - with the only guidance from central Government being to investigate using a planning tool like an Article 4 Direction - a long and bureaucratic process. While being a powerful tool, efforts to use it are stifled by the cost of evidence gathering, monitoring and possible compensation payments, making it a risky option.

A start to better control, says the council, would be to make betting shops a "sui generis" use class of their own so that the creation of any new development would require planning approval and issues such as impact on the local shopping area and consequences for the local community could be considered.

Cllr Canver added:

“Making betting shops a separate planning category, would really empower residents to take control of their high streets and provide them with a chance to have their say. It is high time that the Government listened to local people and gave councils the power to prevent clustering on our High Streets.”

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