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Our hands were tied over licence for gaming arcade
• I FELT I must reply to the criticism of Islington’s licensing committee’s decision regarding the “gambling parlour” in Junction Road (Revealed: politicians who backed licence for 40 slot machines, July 4). It is wrong to suggest any councillors “backed” the licence. I think I can safely say all councillors were opposed to this application but our hands were tied.
Earlier this year the council did indeed refuse an almost identical application at the Nag’s Head. All residents and councillors were against it. The outcome was that the company concerned appealed against the decision in the courts. The council lost the appeal; the judge strongly criticised the council, and put the whole cost onto the council.
If the council refuses applications, loses appeals and picks up the bills, it is going to end up wasting an awful lot of money.
Sadly, the new gambling legislation put in place in 2005 by the Labour government panders to the gambling lobby.
I would suggest that instead of political point-scoring, Councillor Janet Burgess and her colleagues might like to join the Liberal Democrats in lobbying their own party’s government to try to get the gambling laws changed, so residents’ needs and wishes can be considered.
One simple measure would be to allow councils to take into consideration what licensed premises the area already has. In Junction ward there are five betting shops. If we had a common-sense saturation clause we could have refused to even accept the application.
Please join us to try to get some reform of this Labour legislation.
Cllr TRACY ISMAIL
Chair of licensing (Lib Dem)
• I AGREE with campaigners that a new gaming arcade in Junction Road would take Archway in the wrong direction. No one seriously believes that Archway would be regenerated by a proliferation of strip clubs and penny arcades.
It’s not about being illiberal about gambling. Adults in Islington should make their own choices about spending their own money.
What this is about is making sure local people have a say about what goes on in their own area, and that’s something the Liberal Democrats have always stood for.
But the law isn’t on the side of local people. The Labour government, which wrote the law and put it on the statute books, isn’t on the side of local people. The gambling laws, passed by Labour only three years ago, were effectively a slap in the face to residents who want to have a say about the character of their neighbourhood, as are licensing laws which don’t let councils stop pubs being turned into strip clubs. The law needs changing.
That’s why I’ll be calling on our local MP, Jeremy Corbyn, to raise this issue in the House of Commons.
Last month, MPs began debating the striptease laws with an eye to overturning the Labour government’s bad decisions. It’s about time they did the same for gambling.
I hope local people will join us by writing to their MP demanding changes to this bad law and the way decisions like this are made.
CLLR URSULA WOOLLEY
Lib Dem, Junction ward
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