LETTERS – Please do the right thing

Dear Coun Grocock,

I note with dismay that Merkur Slots has made an application for all day gambling in the former Dorothy Perkins premises.

Many of the same objections apply as pertained to the previous planning application:

• Gambling is a national problem leading to mental health problems and financial difficulties – we all know who the real winners are in these scenarios.
• Merkur states that the crime rate for the area is relatively low – 212 reported crimes since April – and that simply means we want to keep it that way.
• How on earth will Merkur, because of the very nature of their business, improve the situation or even retain the status quo?
• Spalding is an attractive market town in a rural area and because of the pandemic and the down turn of the High Street we need to boost the town with retail and even café culture, not the inevitable increased deprivation that gambling will attract.
• Parking may be an increased problem
• Litter most certainly will be an increased problem. The Spalding Wombles – a volunteer litter picking group – have worked wonders in clearing the town of mess and litter – we don’t need more rubbish.
• Noise and nuisance will inevitably be an increased problem.

I want to be even more proud of this town than I am already. It has beautiful architecture, a market, a very unusual carillon that is hugely under used and a great deal of history.

Please, please members of the Licencing Panel and councillors of South Holland do the right thing and believe in Spalding by making it better, not worse.

Make a difference. I have known this town and the surrounding area all my life. It is very special to me and many others and if I can help in any small way I would be delighted to do so.

Jacqui Woods

* Editor’s note: the above letter was submitted ahead of the licensing meeting highlighted on today’s front page. The company concerned has now been granted the licence with the conditions outlined in the story.