This is an abridged version of the speech I gave.
We have been talking a lot about poverty tonight
One clear sign of poverty in a neighbourhood is to
look at the types of shops and businesses that predominate on its High Street.
In my ward, Kensington and Fairfield, we have far too many of four particular types of businesses; there are off-licences where people buy cheap strong
alcohol to drink themselves into oblivion so they don’t have to face terrible lives. We have dozens of hot food take-aways selling quick
gratification for the miserable; we have betting shops for people whose lives
are so bereft of positive experiences that their only enjoyment comes from
praying for a big win on the horses or the slot machines. And of course we have
lots of payday lenders and pawnshops for those who can’t pay the leccie this week.
It would be very easy as Councillors to become
depressed at the futility of it all and at our inability to change anything but
that’s not Labour’s way is it. We burn with the need to make a difference.
So we have been busy establishing foodbanks, supporting
the credit union movement, paying for debt advice for our residents and trying
to devise ways to limit people’s exposure to gambling.
There is another big project that has taken years to
come to fruition but is finally going to happen tonight with your support. Ever
since I was elected I have been fighting the excessive number of off licences
in our ward.
7 years ago to this very day, January 15th
2007, I stood in front of the licensing committee begging them not to pass an
application to extend the hours of an off licence on Prescot Road called,
believe it or not, “not drunk enough”.
They had been caught selling alcohol to underage kids, there were
stories of people lying in the gutter outside and they had been accused in the
local press of giving taxi drivers money to
encourage them to bring drunks to their shop to buy more alcohol. The
licensing committee were sympathetic but said their hands were tied and despite my very best efforts,
passed the application to allow it to open until 4am.
That was
the day I realised that the law as it stood was not on our side and we had a
big fight on our hands.
Over
subsequent years we have heard some stories of young women and girls being found
drunk and unconscious in our parks, vulnerable to sexual attacks or robberies,
having persuaded adults to buy cheap vodka for them locally; We have regular reports
of anti-social behaviour where people’s neighbours are screaming and shouting
up the street in the early hours of the morning full of drink they have been
able to buy on the corner, even so late at night.
And as
you will see in the report before you tonight, we have had many responses to
our consultation describing the behaviour of a small group of hardcore
alcoholics who drink out on the street all day from 9 o’clock in the morning,
intimidating passers-by, begging for money and staggering into the traffic,
they urinate and defecate on the street and lie collapsed by entry gates for
our local children and families to see.
They are
being facilitated by the proliferation of shops open around the clock selling
the cheapest strongest stuff.
Ever
since Allerton Road and Lark Lane were given local powers to oppose the opening
of more bars and restaurants it has been the aim of me and my ward colleagues to find
a way to utilise the same powers to stop any more off licences from opening in
our area and to challenge the work practices of those we are already stuck with.
Finally
we are able to put a plan before you to change our local licensing law. If you
pass this recommendation then in future the presumption will always be to
refuse any applications unless there is a very good reason.
And in a
stroke of genius, Councillor Robinson who has done so much of the leg work for
this excellent initiative has also been able to include hot food takeaways into
the same policy.
This
Cumulative Impact Policy is not the only measure we are taking of course;
We
continue to engage with the council’s Alcohol and Tobacco Unit to ensure that
underage drinkers are not buying directly from our local shops
We work
with property landlords to persuade them to help manage the behaviour of their
tenants
We work
with the police to manage the crime and anti-social behaviour and are currently at work on a proposal for a complete ban on alcohol on the streets of our ward
We work
with Public Health, the Whitechapel Centre, the YMCA and organisations like the
marvellous Basement Project who send outreach workers to engage with our street
drinkers. Only this week we heard at our Problem Solving Group that two of them
have been persuaded into a drying out facility in North Wales next week.
Our aim is the provision of a better and more
healthy range of shops and local businesses. We want to see something on offer
to our residents other than off-licences, takeaways, pawn shops and bookies.
We need
to give people better choices that won’t destroy their physical or mental health or drive them further into poverty.
Passing
this policy tonight will be a big step in the right direction.
