I write in response to Patrick Collinson’s report in the Guardian money supplement, 12 January 2008 on Peter Lorimer’s plight of five betting shops in his home town of the Green Lanes area of North London along a 300 yard walk to his local post office. I knew that my home suburb of Erdington in Birmingham was also rife with these establishments but to what extent I did not. Testing out a very similar length route from the centre of the high street where I live to the north end to purchase a new vacuum cleaner belt, I passed not five but eight places where I could gamble my hard earned cash: two William Hills, two Shipley’s, one Betfred, one Ladbrokes and two Goldmines Quicksilver’s. Although these were not all strictly what I would call a betting shop, four were gambling halls with slot machines and the like but even so I categorise the two types in the same ilk.
Like Green Lanes, Erdington is a scruffy but vibrant inner city suburb with the same extraordinarily diverse multi-cultural community as described by Peter Lorimer. The comparisons are uncanny. Erdington is starting to become more affluent, young professionals like myself and partner have come to the area for more affordable housing and we have witnessed in the last two years of living here that the council is working to raise the profile of the suburb: street cleaning with power sprays, establishing an identity with purple branding for directional signposts and developing new council offices to replace the dire looking circa sixties council office tower which overshadows the north end of the high street.
My values and concerns mirror those of Peters. I do not have a problem with betting shops, I am not a prolific gambler but I do have the odd flutter here and there on large sporting events such as the World Cup and The Grand National. I even understand the competition between the differing companies and how they all wish to compete on the same turf for our custom. What really gets my goat is that three of the companies mentioned that inhabit Erdington own two shops within a stones throw of each other, do they think we are all that lazy that we won’t cross the street? Seriously we are talking feet apart, the saturation of these companies in areas of low wealth where they can pray on the vulnerable with low incomes or on benefits are criminal.
According to the Guardian “The answer may lie in the new Gambling Act 2005, better known for its ‘super casino’ controversy, which critics fear has opened the floodgates to a wave of betting shops across the country”. The new rules that came into force in September 2007 which governs applications for gambling licences has opened up opportunities for existing and new businesses to take over the high street. With an estimated 1,500 betting shops opening across Britain by the end of 2008, precious real estate where we once saw butchers, fishmongers and bookshops will now be the home of outlets increasingly adding to the poverty of the areas they open in with false promises of wealth.
So in answer to my question, “Does Erdington have a gambling problem?” yes it does. It has far too many betting shops and gambling halls and I feel that the government needs to bring in stricter policies to help local councils throw out applications that they are in direct conflict with to improve the affluence of an area.
Have your say