Agenda item

Assembly received and noted the terms of a petition presented by the Lead Petitioner, Mr Erturk, that objected to the opening of another pawnbrokers and jewellers in Barking town centre.

Mr Erturk provided the Assembly with background to the petition, namely:

·  a jewellery business, had been operating at 1 London Road, Barking for over 30 years;

·  in 2006 Mr Erturk purchased the shop lease and goodwill of the business known as Barking Discount Jewellers and renamed it Turquoise Jewellers;

·  his business had been facing difficulties when stalls in Barking market, which he felt had lower overheads than him, began selling jewellery and watches, repairing watches and buying gold;

·  on receipt of a letter from the Planning Department in December 2010, advising of the application to change the shop front at 67 East Street (the premises), (next door to Mr Erturk's business) Mr Erturk ascertained that the applicant was Albemarle and Bond plc, whose business comprises pawnbroking and buying and selling jewellery;

·  the premises had a retail licence but was not licensed to allow financial activities;

·  three months after the premises had opened for business officers from the Planning Department confirmed to Mr Erturk that the premises was not licensed to act as pawnbrokers;

Mr Erturk advised Assembly that he organised a demonstration against the opening of the premises, at which 210 people signed the petition but that subsequently over 1,000 people had signed it.  Support had been received from Margaret Hodge MP and some Councillors but none had been received from the Abbey Ward Councillors, where the premises was situated.

Mr Erturk expressed his concern that Albemarle and Bond plc had failed to apply for a licence to enable them to carry on the business of pawnbrokers, particularly as the premises displayed a large pawnbroker sign.

He stated that he was not against competition provided it was fair and balanced but that on this occasion he felt it was not fair of the Council to allow a large jewellers and pawnbrokers to commence business next door to an existing jewellers that had served the people of Barking and Dagenham for over 30 years. He questioned why the Council had allowed this to happen when there were already several pawnbrokers in Barking Town Centre.

Assembly then received the response to the petition introduced by Rob Williams, Group Manager, Environment and Trading Standards. 

It was noted that:

(a)  Planning Officers had explained the planning situation to Mr Erturk at a meeting on 5 May 2011, namely that the premises had an existing planning permission for use as a retail shop and that consequently the current use predominantly as a jewellers did not require a planning permission;

(b)  moral and ethical issues were not material considerations in determining a planning application;

(c)  the element of competition that Mr Erturk may be experiencing is not an issue that would fall within the planning regime;

(d)  officers would be monitoring the balance of trading between that of a jeweller and that of a pawnbroker and should circumstances change that could constitute a material change of use, then appropriate action would be taken by officers.

In response to Mr Erturk's assertion that no Councillors from Abbey Ward had supported the petition, Councillor Saeed (Abbey Ward) confirmed that he had visited Mr Erturk with the Planning Officers.

Following discussion, Assembly agreed:

1.  to acknowledge the concerns of the lead petitioner,

2.  to note the outcome of the investigations and action taken by Officers;

and

3.  to request Officers to report back to the nearest Assembly meeting in six months' time (22 February 2012 or sooner, if appropriate) as to the monitoring of the balance of trading at the premises between that of a jeweller and that of a pawnbroker.