The long-running row over a proposed 24-hour gambling arcade opposite Earl’s Court tube station flared up again this week, with the human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger addressing a fresh gathering of residents at St Cuthbert’s Church on the 17th of September. The meeting happened at the same time as Silvertime Amusements Limited’s appeal against Kensington and Chelsea Council’s refusal of planning permission was still sitting with the Planning Inspectorate, and no hearing date has yet been announced.
Jagger, an 81-year-old human rights defender who lives locally, told those gathered,
I’m opposing it as a human rights defender, as a mother and grandmother who cares about the fate of children and vulnerable people who live in this area.
It is not the first time that she has taken up the cause, having also addressed a demonstration outside the proposed site on Hogarth Road back in April, alongside the council leader Elizabeth Campbell, the ward councillor Linda Wade, the Kensington and Bayswater MP Joe Powell and more than 80 local residents.
What Silvertime Wants to Build
Silvertime Amusements has run an adult gaming centre at 169 Earl’s Court Road for around a decade, according to its legal counsel Andrew Woods, and wants to relocate to a larger unit at 177 to 179 Earl’s Court Road. That is a former Lloyds bank building that is directly opposite the tube station. The change of venue would add around 14 gambling machines to what the company already operates and, crucially, allow the gaming centre to open around the clock, rather than on its current, more limited hours.
That prospect has not gone down well locally. More than 300 objection letters were submitted against the scheme, whilst no letters of support arrived. Kensington and Chelsea’s Planning Sub-Committee duly refused the application on the 16th of April, citing concerns that included the potential loss of active shop frontage, as well as the absence of a robust management plan for the site. Ward Councillor Hamish Adourian did not mince his words at the time, telling the applicant,
It isn’t worth it. Cut your losses, sell up and move on. Perhaps there are other places that will welcome your machines. Not in Earl’s Court.
A Split Decision That Has Left Both Sides Unhappy
What complicates matters, and explains why the row has resurfaced rather than ending in April, is that planning permission and a gambling premises licence are two separate hurdles, with Silvertime only having cleared one of them. Despite the Planning Sub-Committee’s refusal, the council’s licensing process subsequently granted the company an operating licence for the site, which is a decision that has frustrated the campaigners, who thought they had already won. Both planning consent and a licence are needed before the arcade can actually open.
Silvertime, for its part, has argued that a decade of trouble-free operation locally ought to count for something, with Woods pointing out that the company’s existing arcade has run without incident. Residents and their local representatives are not inclined to agree, however. Councillor Wade has urged the council to ‘strongly advocate against the application’ when the Planning Inspectorate appeal is heard, whilst Joe Powell warned at an earlier gathering that operators in this position tend not to give up easily, telling residents that ‘they will come back again, and again.’
Whether that warning proves to be true here is, for now, a question for the Planning Inspectorate rather than Earl’s Court’s town hall. If you annoy Mick Jagger’s wife, though, you’ll be sure to catch the headlines one way or another.