Mecca Bingo has pulled its application to keep its Dagenham venue open day and night, every day of the week, just days after Barking and Dagenham Council opened a public consultation on toughening its approach to gambling. Whilst the two events have not been formally linked by either party, the timing is difficult to ignore.
The bingo hall sits within the London East Leisure Park and has operated continuously since 1996. Its current planning permission allows it to open between 8am and 2am and it was this restriction that Mecca had been hoping to lift.
A Bid for Longer Hours
The application, submitted to the council’s planning department, sought permission to open every day of the week without a curfew. Mecca’s case rested largely on demand, with the company telling planners that it had seen ‘growing demand’ for late-night bingo and pointing out that its existing late opening had not generated a single complaint.
The company also leaned on its neighbours, pointing to the likes of the Gym Group and McDonald’s, both also based at the leisure park, which are already permitted to trade around the clock. Its planning statement put it plainly, saying,
The premises has operated at this location continuously since 1996 and a 24-hour-a-day operating model is considered appropriate for the venue due to the evolving nature of the leisure and entertainment sector, particularly in urban locations where the applicant has seen a growing demand for flexible, late night leisure facilities.
Timing Raises Questions
Mecca pulled the application on Friday the 31st of July, just three days on from the council’s announcement of its gambling licensing consultation. The new policy itself would not have directly governed the planning bid, not least because it deals with licensing rather than planning matters. That said, Mecca would still have needed separate permission from the council to extend its licensed hours, an application its planning statement confirmed had also gone in.
Barking and Dagenham Council itself describes ‘the biggest change’ in the draft policy as ‘a move from a mainly licensing-based approach to one that focuses on preventing harm and improving public health.’ Consultation documents put it more succinctly, saying,
Gambling can affect many areas of people’s lives, including finances, mental health, relationships, housing, personal safety and community wellbeing.
As you might imagine, deprivation features heavily in the council’s reasoning. The draft notes that the borough has higher levels of deprivation than many other parts of London and England and argues that gambling harm tends to fall hardest in such areas. Under the proposed policy, operators applying for new licences would need to show how they would mitigate local risks, particularly in the more deprived parts of the borough.
Consultation Open Until Late August
The consultation runs until Monday the 24th of August and can be completed via the council’s One Borough Voice website, where a survey is also available for residents to have their say. Announcing the review, Councillor Syed Ghani, the Cabinet Member responsible for Licensing, said,
We want to ensure our gambling policy reflects the needs, experiences and priorities of local people. As a council, we have a responsibility to support safe and well-regulated gambling whilst doing everything we can to protect residents, particularly children and vulnerable people, from gambling-related harm.
Whether the policy will affect Mecca’s appetite for longer opening hours further down the line remains to be seen, though for now the Dagenham hall’s doors will keep closing at 2am.