Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Tricky dealing as Kinleigh Folkard Hayward rides roughshod over community interest
(Retrospective Note: This image was a spoof version of the KFH masthead which was part of their 'Completely London' campaign in which they sought to portray themselves as community champions. See end of post for original masthead)
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.
Retrospective addition - KFH 'Completely London' masthead which was spoofed in the image at the top of this post.
Tags for Forum Posts: betting, gambling, kfh, kinleigh folkard hayward
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Katy Mendes on
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Apologies if this has already been discussed (I haven't read the entire thread) - but has anyone contacted David Lammy regarding this? I know that as the law stands at the moment, there is little that can be done, but surely our plight is now significant enough for this to be taken to the top?
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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I contacted him on Twitter a few days back but have yet to receive a reply. Will email now, anyone please feel free to do the same! Address is mail@davidlammy.co.uk
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I think involving Mr Lammy is a good idea. He's a good speaker and has shown interest in this issue.
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Do we know the reference number for the licence application?
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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All the licensing info you need is towards the bottom of this page - http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/business/licensing_regulations/lic...
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What's the email contact for KFH to complain about this?
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KFH's Professional Services Director is Richard Cleminson at RCleminson@kfh.co.uk
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Thanks Hugh.
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Permalink Reply by Paul on
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This is a very good article on the problems of betting shops and gambling:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/apr/20/gambling-hell-betting-a...
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Our email to KFH:
Hello Mr Cleminson,
As owner of a flat in the Coliseum building on Green Lanes, I was dismayed to find out this week KFH's intention to rent out our building's ground floor offices and have them turned into to a Betting Shop (effectively the 10th on this short stretch of the road).
I understand that this is a commercial decision on your part, but considering the extremely high price tag you have put on the premises (£80,000+ per year), I am left in no doubt that you knew exactly what sort of tenants you were in a position to attract.Our building is a residential one, with kids and young families living there, and through this commercial decision you are exposing us all to potential antisocial behaviour of punters, risks of violence and break-ins and assorted issues that have been extensively documented by the local police.
I have to say that I am surprised that a respectable company such as KFH will want to have its name associated with such a community-damaging commercial decision, especially since the word is starting to go round about this and will soon be hitting local and (hopefully) national news headlines, as this seems to be a controversial issue at the moment.
We, the residents of the Coliseum, want it be known that we very strongly disapprove of this decision which were never consulted on or even informed of, and intend to make our views heard in all ways available to us.
Regards
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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So rather than go back to the owner's, Paul Simon Commercial, to beg to be allowed to put a restaurant in (the queues for restaurants on Green Lanes in the evenings have to be seen to be believed) and rather than cut their losses to some extent and take the deal that the council were offerring, they are going to "profit" from their mistake in signing the original lease and the local community will suffer (one they are not a part of).
The bottom line is that someone at KFH is being paid a bonus to get them out of this mess and that bonus is bigger with the Maltese Fleecer.
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