Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Tricky dealing as Kinleigh Folkard Hayward rides roughshod over community interest
The claims of estate agents Kinleigh Folkard Hayward to being upstanding corporate citizens and even community champions are ringing very hollow in Harringay today.
Despite the proud boast of Kinleigh Folkard Hayward to be "bringing your city to life", the tricky dealings by the London estate agents seem to suggest that community interest and community wellbeing are of little concern to them.
Back in July this year, Salisbury boss Dave, heard rumours that the office premises next to Tesco, on the corner of St Ann's Road and Salisbury Road (originally leased for a KFH office), was to be sublet by Kinleigh Folkard Hayward to a betting shop operator.
There's strong awareness in the neighbourhood that we have about as many betting shops as any high street could bear. So I was keen to find an alternative letting solution. I'd heard about a couple of London examples recently when the community had approached either a betting shop operator, or a landlord and persuaded them not to open a betting shop. Given the case to be made for Green Lanes having a surfeit of betting shops, I suggested to Rob Chau of Harringay Traders that an approach be made to KFH.
I felt that there must be a solution that would satisfy KFH's legitimate commercial requirements whilst also delivering on community interest.
Rob picked up the baton and passed things over to the GLA team involved on the Green Lanes regeneration project. As summer progressed and turned to Autumn, all seemed to be going well. GLA supported plans had been hatched to let the shop and use it as a community pop-up space for an interim period.
About a week ago Rob told me that negotiations had progressed well and that the arrangements for a community pop-up shop were about to be finalised. Then out of the blue yesterday, the Haringey Council licensing team received an application for a licence to operate the premises as a betting shop.
My first thought was that perhaps the betting shop operator had made a speculative application in the hope that they would come to terms with KFH. I haven't completely abandoned hope of this being the case. We don't know for sure that it's not. But, when I spoke to Rob Chau early this morning he told me, "It's 90% certain that KFH have decided to lease to the betting shop. You don't submit a licensing application unless you're certain you have a premises to licence". Then Councillor Nilgun Canver told me, "Kinleigh Folkard Hayward abandoned our proposals and the licensing application is being progressed".
It seems like bad news. It seems like KFH could reasonably face accusations not only of riding roughshod over community interest, but also of what might at best be described as a rather tricky approach to negotiating with a local community.
Rob Chau commented, "I'm very disappointed. No one from KFH has bothered to visit. They just don't care. This is only a commercial issue for them."
"They've been very two-faced. They put on a community face and got involved in drawn out discussions and negotiations; with the other face, they did a deal against community interest.
I asked Dave at the Salisbury what he thought of the way KFH had conducted themselves, "I think it's disgusting. It's really disgusting. We really don't need another betting shop. I'm not happy at all"
Those of you who caught my angry tweets last night might suspect that I'm keen to see if we can get together as a community to fight this. You'd be right! I respect KFH's right to make a commercial decision, but there must be a way, where between them, the GLA, the Council and the community we can come up with a solution where we're all winners.
If KFH truly have shut the door on negotiation, then there are a range of options open for fighting this. More over the next few days.
Tags for Forum Posts: betting, gambling, kfh, kinleigh folkard hayward
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Reuben John on
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We only give £1,000's of pounds in charity to local schools, employ local people, live locally and are also allowing the use of our commercial property for a community project. Thanks Anette, very constructive, just like when you hung up me for trying to explain this to you. Reuben - Director at Paul Simon Sales and local resident.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Cheers, Reuben. I know your work to support the community is appreciated as is your much more community focussed business style.
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Permalink Reply by Stuart on
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I'd also like to voice my support for some help Reuben gave in relation to an unlawful conversion. It's fair to say (without going into details) that without Reuben's help (with no upside for him) we would not have been successful in defeating an appalling attempt to con the council into granting a Certificate of Lawfulness for an illegal conversion.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Reuben
I know that PS Sales, PS Lettings and PS Commercial are different departments trading under the Paul Simon umbrella ( Note that Annette did not specify PS Sales ) but if you use the same name, and the same logo, you have to expect that you will be lumped together and if you benefit from the use of the PS name, advertising, etc, you must expect that the brickbats will come your way too.
If you really want to clean up your image, why don't you clear away all the obsolete and out of date PS estate agents boards - there's one at 5 Alroy that has been there since 1999, so long that the wooden mounting is rotting, and there's another not too far from you -
which has been there a lot longer than the statutory two weeks - indeed it's looking quite weatherbeaten.
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Not unlike dogs, estate agents like to mark their territory. I think we have on the Coliseum building the biggest PS board on the whole of Green Lanes, which has been there for about 4 months and which they categorically refuse to remove (to add insult to injury it's for the soon to be betting shop office space downstairs). The council has been contacted 4 weeks ago but I'm still waiting to hear back...
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Feel free to complain about the boards to Nicholas Seaton, head of PS Commercial at nicholas@psscommercial.com but don't expect a friendly response
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Permalink Reply by L F T Snowflake on
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I think a campaign against Estate Agent's boards is definatley something I wold be in favour of - but of that, more later.
Now, lads and lasses what ARE we going to do to try and stop the betting shop?
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Anette, a bit tough ole gel.
A couple of points worth bearing in mind.
1. Paul Simon Sales (i.e. residential sales and lettings - the office on Green Lanes) is under new ownership as of a year or so ago.
2. Paul Simon Commercial who own the building that is the subject of this discussion now have a very arms length (franchisee?) commercial relationship with Paul Simon Sales.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I'm afraid I'm with John D on this. If you benefit from the positive points of a brand you should also suffer from the negative points.
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UPDATE: On Tuesday, I was contacted by KFH with a request to discuss the content of this discussion. I duly contacted them and have had both email and phone contact with them. The company's primary focus was the understandable desire to to put their side of things. They explained, "We put the premises in Salisbury Promenade onto the open market at the end of 2011 and have had little interest from any parties wanting to take an assignment of the lease, except for a betting shop operator. The combined rent and rates bill is in the region of £85,000 per annum, which has deterred many retailers, and there is a clause in the lease preventing change of use to a restaurant." They also told me, "We care very much about our reputation across London and support many local communities on a number of projects. However, we do have to make commercial decisions and in the case of the premises in Harringay we received only one acceptable offer."
I completely recognise the commercial consideration here and have been at pains to highlight that as key right form the start. However, at this point I am left feeling that "car(ing) very much about our reputation across London" is a very different to caring about communities they work in. After a slew of emails in July, they can have been left in little doubt about why this issue is such a serious one for the neighbourhood and what strength of feeling there is about it. However, not only did they never visit the area, they made a deal with a tenant whilst negotiating with the community and without a word of warning.
There were signs earlier in the week that perhaps they were wiling to reopen discussions and they promised to attend the Green Lanes Strategy Group (GLSG) tonight. However, last night Rob Chau received an email explaining that they couldn't attend after all due to previous commitments.
I have put in a further call to their commercial services director, at his suggestion and am currently awaiting a return of call.
I'll report back what I'm allowed to after tonight's GLSG meeting.
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Permalink Reply by Paul on
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The residents objecting to the betting shop proposal are having an informal meeting at 12.00 am this Saturday.
This will be at my Flat (number 4).
If any members of this group would also like to attend please get in touch. I cannot fit too many but some would be welcome. Contact: storks@mac.com
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