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Permalink Reply by Rachella Sinclair on June 7, 2012 at 22:18

Well done to everyone who did this! 

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Permalink Reply by Alan Sitkin on June 8, 2012 at 10:01

At an initial level, "people power" is always great, street protests have always been a powerful way of conveying sentiment and if we have a chance to organise something like that in Bowes we will.

But at a deeper more structural level, it's a question of changing current national legislation in this respect.  William Hill saw common sense and dropped their plans but legally they didn't have to. And yet they shouldn't have the choice. Current national legislation prevents Councils from turning down planning applications on the basis that there are too many already but if indeed the supposed localism agenda were real and not just lip service, we'd be given more rights in the planning area as well.

So maybe our three MPs might want to lodge a bill at Parliament giving Councils more power to determine the makeup of their high streets? Trust me, this Enfield Administration would be delighted to have the power to stop all these betting shops taking over our streets!

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