Forum topic: Previous Lloyds Bank site change to Adult Gaming Centre - Appeal

Tuesday 25th February was the date of the appeal against our council refusing planning permission for the change of use of the previous Lloyds Bank site to an Adult Gaming Centre (AGC).

The history is well documented on the PGC web site: https://www.pgweb.uk/forum/palmers-green-town-centre/1597-pg-action-team-leading-fight-to-block-new-gambling-venue

The applicants – East Kent Leasing – were represented by a KC, a licensing solicitor and a planning consultant, as well as a director of the family business. Three officers made the case for the council. The PG community was represented by Kiri and Haroulla, officers of the Business Association, Cara and Dana, of the Action Team, our councillor, Doug Taylor and myself.

Having assessed previous written submissions the inspector, who is representing the Secretary of State, determined four matters would be subject to analysis. Of these, two were particularly relevant to the community representation:
1.       The effects of the proposal upon the health and vitality of Palmers Green District Centre including whether the proposal would result in an overconcentration of gambling uses in the area
2.       The effects of the proposal upon community cohesion with particular regard to its effects upon crime and anti-social behaviour in the area.

Much of the discussion was of a technical nature, heavily based on precedents and associated implications from various levels of planning hierarchy from the NPPF down to the borough’s Core Strategy.

Earlier papers, and it was argued precedent, had sought to draw a distinction between betting shops and AGC’s. Cllr Taylor sought to counter by drawing on examples from the appellants position at Companies House as well as the intent when developing the 2014 Core Strategy under his leadership of the council.

Equivalent discussion was held on “clustering”, what was meant by it, how close premises need to be for it to apply, and more.

The Action Team had earlier produced an outstanding submission, tacking such technical issues, which can be viewed on their web site https://www.palmersgreenactionteam.org/.

Kiri was able to highlight the high demand for premises in PG, and hence that alternatives to a void space should the appeal fail would be available, a point supported by the action team with actual examples. Kiri also drew out the impact of addictions as a crime driver on the high street and that like drugs and alcohol, gambling was an addiction.

As a team we were often able to highlight specific issues of the vicinity, including locations, opening hours and such, to enrichen the inspector’s knowledge. (The inspector had visited the location the previous day and was to visit the actual site after the hearing closed.)

My own focus skewed towards the local crime assumptions made in the appellants 166-page Statement of Case. I would hope that both through a previous written submission as well as explaining various data sources and relative crime statistics they were found out in their assertions.

There was a regular fallback position taken by the KC, essentially saying there is no proven linkage between crime and gambling and if crime was expected to be an issue, then the police were free to object – they hadn’t.  I had highlighted the serious concerns the police had submitted that crime and disorder could be attracted to the area, while Dana was able to offer the views of our sergeant that he was not supportive. However, and as the KC pointed out, there was nonetheless no actual objection from them / him, and that’s what counts.

We will now wait the inspector’s verdict, but this later point is highly relevant: in at least three cases during the hearing the inspector drew from comments submitted in written objections by those not in attendance and put the points to the appellant. He was also insistent in the seating arrangement that he could see the eyes of every attendee – in short, just as with reporting crime, talking about it to mates is no good, there has to be a submission, and it will at least be read and at most may make a real difference. Similarly with attendance, while the community team numbers were small, they nonetheless outnumbered those of the council and the appellant, that was noted. A little effort can sometimes go a long way. Let’s see.

(AGC’s, such as Merker Slots, were described as non-alcohol-based leisure facilities, often for those not able to afford other more expensive forms of entertainment. A typical stay would be 20-30 minutes, and 10 people would be viewed as being exceptionally busy.  Customers drawn to this proposal are expected to be incremental to those currently using Merker Slots rather than merely sharing out current users. The family business were said to be well experienced with a good track record.)