| Home | Bookmark | Tell | Active petitions in over 75 countries | Follow GoPetition |
Petition Tag - high street
1. Brentford Town Centre - Calling for a human scale and beautiful regeneration 
Five years ago the Brentford community came together with our award-winning vision for the future of our town centre. In 2010 Brentford High Street Steering Group co-commissioned with Ballymore developers a study by The Prince’s Foundation, to ensure a design brief of which future generations would be proud.
The town centre planning application submitted by Ballymore Properties in September 2012 does not deliver the world-class scheme Brentford’s historic town centre should be. Ballymore has submitted a plan for eighteen 6-11 storey high blocks with 929 flats on the south side of Brentford High Street.
Local residents have described the plan as: “aggressive, overbearing and underwhelming.” The high rise, bland buildings are totally inappropriate in Brentford – a town centre with Roman, Saxon and medieval archaeology and once home to Pocahontas.
In 2000 English Heritage recommended the site should be designated a Conservation Area.
As home today to respected innovative global companies GlaxoSmithKline and Brompton bicycles, employing hundreds of local people, Brentford High Street deserves an outstanding regeneration scheme.
2. Stop Lapdancing in Leamington High Street and the Town
Opened in 2008 Shades Nightclub has been offering lapdancing and is applying to renew its license. The Licensing Act requires objections to be related to 4 key grounds: to prevent crime and disorder, for public safety, public nuisance and protection of children from harm. But the application I am now told is under the Miscellaneoous Provisions Act 2003 which I have been told by a council officer allows broader objections.
Housing is close by, a new student accommodation building is being built very nearby and it is a well known area for student accommodation. The railway station is a short distance away and the High Street is a shopping area including women's clothing. A community office is around the corner, cafes close by, the Hindu Temple is only a stone's throw away, churches are in the area and the internationally famous Sikh Gurdwara attracting thousands of people is just up the road and amongst many wedding venues attracting business into the town.
3. Stop betting shops taking over our high streets
The 2005 Gambling Act gives local authorities very limited powers to refuse Gambling Licenses and Planning Permission to large betting chains. When councils and local communities try to prevent new betting shops opening, companies appeal at great cost to the local authority – at a time when cuts to their funding make this impossible. The industry is prepared to bankrupt councils to get an even greater hold on our high streets.
Bookmakers are currently targeting the poorer areas in our cities and towns. In some cases there are as many as 12 or 13 in one street. In mad competition with each other, they bid for any freeholds available in the certain knowledge they will be granted licenses. Often they are clustered together and are the cause of antisocial behaviour and theft, making parts of a street a no-go area. They take advantage of people in desperate financial circumstances and are encouraging gambling addiction in those who can least afford it, threatening the futures of our communities' children.
We are calling on the government to change the Act and give local communities a greater say over their high streets. There should be a separate planning class for betting shops to give councils and residents the power to determine their location and overall numbers. Presently councils cannot deny an application on the basis of the number already open in their area.
John Penrose MP at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is on record as saying he isn't convinced the law needs changing because he's only heard a complaint from one London Borough (Hackney).
Therefore the aim of this petition is to show the government that it is not just a problem in the poorer parts of London, but is prevalent across the country, especially in the outskirts of our major towns and cities.
It is not a petition against betting, it's about changing the law to enable communities to combat the proliferation of betting establishments.
It is also completely independent and aims to be cross-party. In London, the only voices to be heard so far are from Diane Abbott MP for Hackney, David Lammy MP for Tottenham, and Ken Livingstone MP for Brent East (in his campaign for Mayor of London). If your council or MP has it on their agenda let us know, or email them this petition and put it on their agenda.
Please help bring this to national and media (and therefore government) attention by signing the petition and passing it on to friends and relatives in other parts of the UK.
LOCAL PETITION
This national petition was started in Deptford, part of the London borough of Lewisham, where both Labour MP and council have not been particularly vocal about the problem of betting shops since 2009 when Lewisham Council was the lead authority on a proposal submitted to central government as a suggested amendment to the Sustainable Communities Act that would allow councils to have the power to cap the number of bookmakers in a certain area.
We're still waiting.
If you live in the Deptford area, please see our sister petition against the licensing of the eighth betting shop in Deptford High Street. Go to:
www.gopetition.com/petition/42164.html
4. Return Andover Cenotaph to OUR High Street
In 1954 according to the minutes of the Andover Council, a proposal was made to extend the lower half of the Guildhall and the Cenotaph would have to be removed.
In 1956 the Cenotaph was moved to the churchyard due to an excuse it was being damaged. The Guildhall was NEVER extended!
At the Andover Councils request & permission of the Bishop of the Diocese, a very large number of Tombstones & Monuments were removed to accommodate the Cenotaph and open space surrounding it. To my knowledge the graves still remain there & the tombstones are laid out like little pack of cards around the cenotaph.
My proposal, now that the High St is pedestrianized, is that there is no reason why the Cenotaph cannot be returned to it's rightful place somewhere in the High St?
The present leader of the TVBC; Mr Ian Carr, has already dismissed the proposal thru the Andover Advertiser saying the council has no plans to move it.
Sir George Young has also put in his two penny worth & can be found on Andover Sound Radio.
We the people of Andover need to make sure these brave men are never forgotten by returning OUR memorial to the High St.
Extracts from "The Roll Call" 1920 when the memorial was unveiled:
It was an act of consecration, an external evidence of gratitude to the men of Andover
The hallowed associations of the High Street were not only a part of the history of their own borough, but they were part of the greater history of the nation.
They were standing on a hallowed and consecrated spot.
That memorial was built upon the tears of the widow, the pathetic sobs of the orphans, the desolate heart of the mother who had lost her son.
Why The Petition? : https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1pyyaPb2lEWa8hYytxKYMxSbsIh2Iejrd1oQ3GWsamJg&hl=en
FACEBOOK PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1584157650084&sk=messages#%21/group.php?gid=371600979221&ref=ts
The Roll Call 1920: https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1WiR0isoO1qld9C4fBDqIOezRbr2_0nwm5tMzW68RH1w&hl=en
The Council Minutes 1950's : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=371600979221&v=app_2373072738&ref=ts
POEM by Ron Wood - Could Have Been You!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=371600979221&v=app_2373072738&ref=ts#%21/topic.php?uid=371600979221&topic=15115