VILLIERS WELCOMES SUCCESS IN CAMPAIGN AGAINST ADULT GAMING CENTRE

MP for Chipping Barnet, Theresa Villiers, today welcomed an important victory in the campaign by local residents to resist efforts to establish an adult gaming centre in Barnet High Street.

After Barnet Council turned down a planning application by Agora Gaming Ltd for a gaming centre in the former Mothercare shop on the High Street, the company applied instead for permission to use the premises as a coffee bar. Residents’ groups, including “SPACES”, expressed grave concern that if the application for a coffee bar were to be accepted, it would only be a matter of time before an attempt is made to revive the original plan for an adult gaming centre. Last week, Barnet Council turned down the coffee bar application.

Theresa Villiers MP said, “This is good news for my constituents and for our local high street. All credit should go to the Spaces Residents’ Association who have campaigned tirelessly over many months and rallied local support against the application. There was a real risk that allowing a change of use from a shop to a coffee bar would have been used as a stepping stone towards a renewed application for a gaming centre and would have made it more difficult for the Council to turn down such an application.”

“However, the threat of a gaming centre in the high street has not gone away. An appeal against the Council’s refusal of planning permission is always a possibility. I continue to believe that a gaming centre would be the wrong choice for our high street and could potentially have a detrimental impact on young people in Chipping Barnet. The high street needs more retail facilities not an adult gaming centre."

Chris Smith, the member of the SPACES Residents’ Association who is leading the campaign said, “We have spent months campaigning against what would have been a wholly inappropriate development on Barnet High Street so this is a real triumph and truly a case of what can be achieved when council and community work together.”