Recent Observer FIGHT BACK against Bookies.....

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.

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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

Special report
Gambling

Useful links
Gambling Act 2005
UK Gambling Commission
Gamblers Anonymous

Armley Forum...what happened

The Armley Forum was chaired by councillor Janet Harper and was fairly well organised. My main problem was hearing everything that was said due to people grumbling under their breath and a lot of coughing.
Subjects that were discussed were:

• Armley Leisure Centre - alleged poor conditions of cleanliness both of the the pool and the centre as a whole. The deputy manager defended the condition saying they were mainly down to the age of the centre and the fact that it was impossible to avoid having prams rolling across the poolside.
• The site of the new lesiure centre was briefly discussed. It will be on the site of the existing car park and there will be floodlit outdoor pitches, one of which will be left open after hours for local kids to play on. There was also something about a chill centre for the kids to hang out in.
• There were various complaints about "youths", "bins" and "mini-motos", all of which I expect are a symptom of living in an areas with a large amount of disaffected teenagers. The police said they were concentrating on certain areas such as the Cedars and the Salisburys but a lot of the time they could not arrest the kids as they were not committing crimes. They advised people to phone the non-emergency number if they had evidence or knowledge of anti-social behaviour.
• There was a lengthy presentation from youth worker Kevin Donnelly about his trip to the favelas of Rio de Janerio. I won't go into it but he detailed his various encounters with drugs and violence and took a swipe at the old cynics saying "if we don't value our youths then the drug dealers will".

That's all I can remember. The Todd's debacle was briefly mentioned with someone pointing out that although they have gained planning permission they are yet to get a betting licence.

I also had a brief conversation with the Armley Moor Trust treasurer who said he was having difficulties getting planning permission for a new hut on Charlie Cake Park.

Is Community Dead?

Listen to an ambassador from Britain's friendliest street on BBC Radio Leeds 18th April at 7.45 am

LACK OF TRUST AMONG NEIGHBOURS HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO BOOST COMMUNITY SPIRIT

Confirming concerns that community spirit is in danger of becoming a thing of the past, a new survey has revealed that nearly 60% of Brits confess to never having borrowed anything from a neighbour. Over 35% said that they wouldn't even trust their neighbour to water their plants whilst they were away!

When asked whether they felt that community spirit had decreased compared to fifty 50 years ago, an overwhelming 93% said they feel it has.

All this has prompted Miller Homes to enable its buyers to get to know their neighbours online through a new service being launched this month - www.mymillerstreet.co.uk.

Celebrity psychologist, Geoffrey Beattie explains why we don't know our neighbours as much as we used to, why community spirit is good for the soul and why certain regions are more neighbourly than others.
Plus, for those that can't get to know their neighbours online, he'll give top tips for getting to know the man next door, how to be a good neighbour and how to avoid coming across as a curtain twitcher! (The X LadyM thinks curtain twitching is a very valid pastime)

Did you know?
Scots are the most likely to know their neighbours by name with over 90% saying they know the man next door.
Proving it's not always more friendly up north, residents of Leeds came bottom when asked the same question - in fact over 25% of people in Yorkshire couldn't name the people next door.

Over 80% of Scots also said it was important to know your neighbours, compared to just 68% in Birmingham, 67% in Nottingham and 65% in Leeds.

When it came to community spirit, Cambridge had the poorest showing with a mere 7% of people knowing ten or more people in their neighbourhood. Coventry came a close second with just 13% saying the same followed by Leicester at 22%, Edinburgh at 23%, London and Southampton at 24% and Leeds at 25%.

Proving they're a friendly bunch in Newcastle, over 75% of Geordies said they had spoken to neighbours in the last week

Over half of Midlanders didn't bother to introduce themselves to next door when they moved in with Sheffield, Leeds and Nottingham a very close joint second.

Nearly 20% of Liverpudlians said knowing your next door neighbours did not contribute to a better quality of life - compared to a national average of just 7%

Nearly a quarter of Brits said they would gladly ditch their own neighbourhood to live on Ramsey Street - the fictional setting of long running Aussie soap, Neighbours. The only region where Erinsbrough didn't come out top was Glasgow, where Coronation Street topped the poll.

And finally, one quarter of people in Nottingham said that they didn't consider themselves to be a good neighbour - topped only by Leeds at a sad 26%.

The Next Armley Forum- get along to hear exciting plans and have your say!

No excuses, if we want to have a say then here's the place to do it, with the rest of Armley's fine community, councillors and the local council officers who know what's going on!

Click here to be taken through to a very informative site all about the plans for Armley and regeneration.

The next forum meeting is 17th April 19:00 at Armley One Stop Centre.

Any questions or to join their mailing list email nhd.innerwest {at} leeds.gov.uk

Can Art Change the World?

Another post on Art and Creativity.

One of my pet themes that I am trying to research is what is the link between art, creativity and regeneration?

• Is it something that needs the local government to sponsor, or is it something that springs up and grows gradually? Or both?
• Does a place that has lots of creativity going on always end up having the middle classes come in and push the poor out?
• What does it mean to the average person to live in an area where creativity flourishes?
• Do we need to do anything proactive, like create the conditions where creative people (from someone who enjoys knitting, through to professionals) can meet and share?
• Would we like studio spaces in Armley? (I know I would)
• We have already witnessed a quirky brand of Artiness developing here, from the I Love West Leeds Fesitival, to the Marvellous Tea Dances, to The Charming Armley Calendar, Jam Up the Back Passage, Interplay Theatre, Rock and Roll Circus Recording Studios and Venues.
• What more could there be? (Use the contested Regeneration Billboard as a changing canvas, have a competition to design the best public toilets, empty retail units as gallery spaces and studios, Charlie Cake Park Parades, Urban Picnics???)
  
• Should we meet and find out what we could do if we put our heads together in a venue with drinks and chow?

Please email or comment jamsiren@thearmleytouristboard.com

Where else has this worked?
Bilbao
Chapel A? Click here to see Chapel A referred to as a case study in a book about global gentrification (However if you do a search on books containing C A they only get 76, Armley has 252!!- Thanks to Barbara, Alan and Peter Robinson!
Where else?

Links to the right- How Folkstone is rebuilding itself with the help of money, art and lots of vision, but from the Ground UP

What makes Armley what it is?

I know I bang on about Armley being full of amazingly creative people, but is it true?
Just cos I know a couple does that make it so?

The other day in conversation a person residing in Beeston told me that Armley was about as creative as a sh*t sandwich (sounds like something you could get funding for if you filmed the process).

They referred to the Armley they knew, which was a bit clichéd but basically went:
There is a dogging carpark near the Armley Mills Museum, it has a history of asbestos and cancer, a big roundabout, lots of chavs, dead people dumped near the dogging spot, a jail, E-Coli food poisoning.

None of the lovely things of Armley came to mind, well why would they?

So what is Armley all about? Who lives here? Where do you think it is going? All the Estate Agents boast about it being 'Up and Coming' is this true?

Regeneration of Armley Town St

Gentrification pushes out the poor for the benefit of the rich. Not many can argue against that. I want the working class of Armley to stick around and not become the latest victims of the insatiable developers of Leeds.
However, if there is some happy medium that could enrich the area and modernise the facilities I gotta say I would vote for that.
As a business graduate I would offer the following mildly cynical thoughts with a sprinkling of optimism on the side.

• There's not enough footfall on Armley Town St to attract businesses of a certain calibre, i.e. low margin, high volume, branded goods
• There's not enough branded goods to attract footfall (it's a cruel world)
• The traffic links suck
• There's no-where near enough parking to facilitate points 1 or 2
• There's not enough of point 1 to improve point 3 (is it getting any clearer?)

Ok, we live in a transport dominated world. Armley may have been a thriving local town but it's now handicapped in so many ways that it needs a very brave local government decision to foster any kind of progress.

As I have indicated this must start with a car park and I imagine the council would be unwilling to invest in that without a fairly major independent business signed up to open premises in the vicinity. I thought Somerfield might have been the catalyst for that until I realised they already owned Kwik Save and it was just a re-branding exercise.

Secondly, I'm not a fan of buses but places like Headingley, Hyde Park and Cross Gates have scores of bus routes going through them as hubs. Armley Town St has basically two, the 16 and the 5. All the other buses through West Leeds stay on the Stanningley Bypass. Yes it's not far away but it's a significant distance. Why do you think Tesco Express put up shop there?

They basically need to turn Armley Town St round to face the bypass and build a big car park in front of it.

There, all sorted...

Nick (grecian.blogspot.com)

ps - boycott Tesco Express for putting in self service tills, or at least refuse to use them and create big queues.