Paddy Power wants to open a branch on the site of former pub The Lordship in Wood Green, north London.
But the bookmakers was turned down for a licensing application by Haringey Council in April this year.
However campaigners now fear the betting shop could become a reality after Paddy Power appealed the decision.
Don't like betting shops. or betting? Don't go in. There! Problem solved!
Campaign group The Lordship N22 are calling on the council to find a loophole in the law and are hoping to get the pub listed as an asset of community value, giving it enhanced protection during the planning process.
But does anyone else want it? Does anyone plan to turn it back into a pub? If not, all you've got is an empty building just ripe for
invasion.
Heidi Saarinen, a lecturer, who lives in the area, told the Standard: “We want to do this to say stop – enough is enough. We can’t just be allowing these gambling companies to rip apart out communities.”
How are they doing that? By providing jobs?
She added: “The many current betting shops, in the immediate stretch of Lordship Lane are attracting anti-social behaviour and creating negative environments with litter, loitering, noise and generally acting as magnets to all the negative issues that we, as a community, want to keep far away from our doorsteps, school and shopping routes.”
So...you'd rather deal with squatters instead? Be careful what you wish for!
Ahmet Izzet, imam of the local Naqshbandiyya Mosque and Turkish Cultural Centre, agreed, "We live in a diverse, multicultural community here in Wood Green. That's why it's so important to reflect greater cultural sensitivity in the planning process. These dens of usury and vice attract the wrong sort of people."
ReplyDeleteMr Izzet, his 3 wives, 18 children and 43 cousins have formed the Amr bil Maaroof (Enforce the Good) League in conjunction with the local Somali, Eritrean and Peruvian Islamic communities to combat the proposed change of use.
"We need a community asset that our community can all share and enjoy," said Mr Izzet through his interpreter. "A mosque, a kebab shop or a taxi rank would all enrich our community and provide jobs for my cousins and their families."
I don't know if that merits a Booker or a Pulitzer. I raise my glass to you.
DeleteHmmm. Surely if it was an "Asset of Community Value" It'd still be open as a Pub?
ReplyDeleteThere are three bookies on our main stretch and none of them have ripped apart our community or attracted all that scum and villany that they're worried about.
ReplyDelete"We live in a diverse, multicultural community here in Wood Green"
ReplyDelete"Until we drive the infidels out."
Oooh looky:
Heidi Saarinen is Senior Lecturer (BA Interior Architecture & Design and MA Interior & Spatial Design) at the University of Hertfordshire with interest in conceptual and experimental projects and teaching methodologies, involving architecture, technology, sensory- and embodied space.
Community and urban design, anthropogenic and planning issues, notably those affecting the everyday of communities and their environments, are high on the agenda and Heidi is an active member of community and heritage groups and develops projects linking communities.
Heidi is also a dance artist and place maker, drawing inspiration from architectural and choreographic theory, with current research focus on The Construction of Place; Spatial Choreographies. Heidi is interested in ‘the peripheral space/in-between’ and the interaction/collision between architecture and the body. Unusual, derelict and unorthodox spaces are used for performances and solo dance and movement works.
I thought the whole idea of paying £9,000 was meant to stamp this sort of waffle out.
Enough of playing the - er - man. Betting shops by their very nature have to be on the ball for lowlife who can penetrate pubs quite easily. Moreover, many gamblers are penny-ante - old people who place a very modest wager to keep them interested in something until they die.
I am not vindictive, though and I hope that little Heidi gets her wish - a colony of Africans or Eastern Eurpeans who can explore the derelict and unorthodox spaces near her home.
And then she can link communities with them.
"...and provide jobs for my cousins and their families."
ReplyDeleteOne, two, three generations removed?
"Oooh looky:
Heidi Saarinen is Senior Lecturer (BA Interior Architecture & Design and MA Interior & Spatial Design) at the University of Hertfordshire ..."
Oh, that's not a joke degree, absolutely not... :/
"I don't know if that merits a Booker or a Pulitzer."
I'm thinking a howitzer might be called for...