Sustainability of Deptford High Street

Tomorrow night Lewisham's licensing committee will consider the application by Betfred for a licence to open a betting shop on Deptford High Street, in the premises of the former Halifax.

If granted, it will be the eighth betting shop on the High Street, five of which are clustered over the space of a few hundred metres.

There are three more betting shops on the Evelyn Triangle, making 11 in total within a few minutes' walk of our town centre. Many people believe we do not need this many bookies; that the ones we already have attract enough disorder and petty crime, and that diversity and sustainability are central to the survival of our high street as a viable shopping district.

Ten people took the time and trouble to write personal objections to the application, and almost 700 have signed a petition against it. But all this strength of feeling and community cohesion will potentially be disregarded.

Although companies such as Betfred and Paddy Power make obvious targets, being the most recent arrivals in our neighbourhood, demonising them is not the answer. We need to look more closely at the law and its implications to try and understand why betting shops are the ones with the upper hand in this situation, and to try and work out how best we could direct our efforts to have this situation reversed.

Unfortunately it seems that initial attempts by Green Party representatives over in Ladywell to have these concerns addressed through the Sustainable Communities Act have been rebuffed somewhat. Sue reports on how the government thinks that local authorities already have sufficient powers to prevent clustering of betting shops, and is going to help them to apply these powers. If that's really the case, then get a bloody move on, I say!

The other Sue over on Crosswhatfields has written about her attempts to find out why none of the statutory authorities seems to have objected to this licence application, given the extent of petty crime, anti-social behaviour and general disorder that swirls around the existing premises. Except it's not the right kind of disorder, she found out in a rather Kafka-esque telephone call with the local Met licensing officer.

The posts might be long, and they do get a bit sweary in the middle, but they are well worth reading to get some idea of the extent to which the law really is an ass. You will feel the pain and understand the reasons for the ranting, and will probably feel like doing the same yourself when you've read them.