EARLY OPPOSITION has emerged to a betting firm’s Forfar plans to set up a second shop within two furlongs of its existing town centre premises.
Bookies firm Coral Racing Ltd has made a bid to open an additional store at the vacant former Happit site at 13-15 Castle Street, a mere five minute walk (or a good drive and short wedge from Bubba Watson) from the existing shop on the town’s East High Street.
However, last night the odds were already stacking up against the company, with one local elected member describing the application for a second shop as “nonsense.”
The popular betting outlet attracts a strong footfall to its existing store and is one of the most successful Coral outlets in Tayside.
A spokesman for the company confirmed that the new shop could bring up to six new jobs to the town should the application be successful.
He added: “The new shop would offer all the betting services that all Coral shops provide, and we are applying for the new licence as we believe there is demand for another shop in the vicinity.”
However, Forfar councillor Glennis Middleton expressed caution over approving another betting store so close to an existing premises and said that she cannot support the application.
Mrs Middleton said: “As an elected local member, in my opinion this is unnecessary and unwarranted.
“Forfar is a small market town and it seems a nonsense to me that a company such as Coral, or any other major bookmakers, would see fit to open a second shop within a five-minute walk of their first one.
“Notwithstanding that, they say they will create six new jobs but I note that it is not clarified if these are full-time and I would suspect they would be in the main part-time.
“The real difficulty I have is that there has been an awful lot of publicity regarding many bookmakers that provide roulette machines which take hundreds and thousands, sometimes millions of pounds out of local economies and as such I cannot support this in any way, shape or form.
“It seems to me that it would be an over-provision of bookmakers and I understand that it may not be an issue forplanning officers but I certainly hope it is for the licensing authority,” she said.
Local community council chairwoman Isobel Ross said the matter would likely be discussed at this week’s meeting but there was a “balance to be struck”.
“Weighing it up, if there’s the prospect of six jobs for the town, that is perhaps better than nothing and the shop continuing to lie empty,” she added.
mdalziel@dcthomson.co.uk