Bingo Club Forced to Take Down Lights
22nd May, 2008
Flutters Bingo Club in Station Road, Biggleswade, is going to have to put the lights down from the exterior of the building, which used to be a cinema and was turned into the bingo club just recently.
Mid Beds District Council (MBDC) was asked by the Biggleswade Town Council to take enforcement action for the bingo club to take down the lights, due to the lack o the planning permission.
Cllr Peter Vickers said this: "These lights are completely out of character and at night it is like the sea front at Blackpool when I have walked up that part of town. The club has broken all planning conditions and never applied for planning to erect these lights in what, after all, is a conservation area."
“All businesses must adhere to the law and comply with planning regulations and what has happened at the club is just not acceptable,” he added. “We are now urging Mid Beds District Council to take enforcement action for the removal of the lights because in Biggleswade town centre there is nothing like it anywhere else.”
On the opposing side, Ian Tyler, a director of Flutters Bingo Clubs, responded to the news by admitting that there was no planning permission regarding the lights, but that he was going to try and achieve an amicable agreement about the issue.
"I will be meeting with planning officers at the end of the week to see whether we can come to some agreement about the light at our club in Biggleswade," he explained.
According to him the club needs extra attraction for more customers to start attending the place.
"This is an issue I have been trying to deal with for some time. We are trying to help boost the club by attracting more people because these are tough times since the smoking ban came into operation,” Tyler said. “It could end up with me having to remove some of the lights. We will have to wait and see."
Here is what the spokesman for MBDC said about this: "Mid Beds are not looking to pull the plug on Flutters just yet. We are monitoring the situation while negotiations are ongoing and we hope that a solution can be found that will be acceptable to all concerned. Clearly if negotiations fail, we would then have to consider appropriate action at that time.”
By Elena
