CAMDEN TOWN HALL - BIDBOROUGH WORKS

(2nd and 3rd floors)

 

OBJECTING TO LICENSING APPLICATION

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The Licensing Committee will ONLY accept Objections that relate to breaches of the Council’s Licensing Objectives.  These must be related to:

• prevention of crime and disorder

• ensuring public safety

• prevention of public nuisance

• protection of children from harm

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RESPONSE SUGGESTIONS

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It is important you express your objections about the matters that relate only to the above and concern you most. The following may be helpful:

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Prevention of crime and disorder

• The scale of the building and the large number of people attending the building will create a focal point for perpetrators of crime.

• If events are marketed to attract people with glamour and wealth, this will make the place a magnet for criminals.

• The location is close to 3 mainline stations which can attract visitors, of a kind, who might come to Kings Cross to commit a crime.

• Controversial events can attract opposing groups who demonstrate outside the building. This could lead to tensions within the community and result in antisocial behaviour.

• There's an accumulative effect. Adjacent Local pubs are used by football fans, especially when important matches take place at Wembley (easy access to station). Excess alcohol consumption can lead to tensions and if drunken guests from Bidborough Works are encouraged to join the fray, this could lead to antisocial behaviour and potential violence.

• Drug use, dealing and antisocial behaviour are already a serious issue in the Kings Cross neighbourhood.and on adjacent streets. Now patrons of Bidborough Works in relaxation mode could simply add to the problem.

• A recent planning and licensing application (2023/4956/P) for extended hours at 1 Euston Road (a 5 minute walk from the Town Hall) was refused. You can always quote this. A police constable witness statement relating to the same application states, “From experience in working night shifts, areas which have no business premises open at night tend to be quieter and to not attract ASB and criminality, whereas venues which operate 24/7 such as some shops for example tend to have people gathering outside, especially during weekends.” From the same report: “The two males who were actively dealing drugs in and around Reel Time Amusement have been arrested and are currently in prison. They were arrested on two separate occasions with approximately 100 wraps of Crack Cocaine and Heroin each.” 

• This Amusement Arcade is a 5 minute walk from the Town Hall.

• The late hours and creation of a ‘Party Venue’ so close to where known drug dealers operate  can only escalate the problem, and shows an ignorance of the local area and the harm this will bring to our streets.

• The 'Bidborough Worls' licence asks for operating hours from 7am to 2am. It is likely that staff will be needed on the premises for at least an hour after 2pm and before 7am. This means it will be a business open 20 hours at a stretch – further escaliting all the disturbances mentioned above

Public safety

• The issues referred to above, refer equally to the licensing objective relating to public safety, both in and outside of the building.

• Residents returning to homes in Queen Alexandra Mansions at night could attract the attention of drug dealers, beggars and others drawn to the late night events of 'Bidborough Works' where people will be entering and exiting at any time before midnight. The 'friendly' Dolphin pub will have closed by this time, making the street more vulnerable. This potential for unwelcome attention in the hours of darkness is intimidating, especially to women.

• Tonbridge Walk (between the Standard Hotel and the eastern end of the Camden Centre) is a narrow passageway.  It provides a direct route for people wishing to use the Night Bus or other late night public transport. Large numbers of people could be exiting Bidborough Works at the same time (eg after a an event).  This will lead to overcrowding in Tonbridge Walk and a consequent lack of safety. Theft from the person is often rife in such crowded conditions. There is no passive surveillance in this narrow passageway.

• Alcohol will be available for sale from 10am to midnight on Friday and Saturday and to 11.30 the other nights. With refreshments available to 1.30 in the morning, it will be possible for Club Members to remain in Bidborough Works all day and all evening. Excessive consumption of alcohol can be dangerous to the drinkers, especially should they choose to access the open terraces, three floors above the pavement. Accidents can occur.

• There is an inherent risk of suicide (intentionally or unintentionally) from the open terraces. There's already been a suicide jump onto Tonbridge Walk from the hotel next door.

• The licence application’s condition 12 states that each floor will have a minimum of one staff member on the premises at all times during hours of operation. This is insufficient. If there is a crisis (say on a terrace, or a fight breaks out) this might require assistance from another staff member. This will leave the 'club' without any staff at all.

• The proximity of the building to three mainline stations and the Eurostar connection to France makes it vulnerable to acts of terrorism.

Public Nuisance

• The issues referred to above apply equally to the licensing objective relating to public nuisance, both in and outside of the building.

• The proposal for late night licensing and regulated entertainment, including music, will inevitably result in the potential for nuisance to any resident of flats on the Bidborough Street side of Queen Alexandra Mansions.

• The number of people permitted to use each floor at any one time (over 300) will inevitably cause noise nuisance outside the building, especially as all the windows in areas of the building where there is no licensable activity (ie the kitchens overlooking Bidborough Street) can be opened.

• All the windows will cause severe and direct light intrusion/nuisance to the residential properties  opposite.

• Given the scale of the operation and the implied change from office use (where most workers go home at at a reasonable hour) to event use (where entertainment activities and music can be played until 11.30pm) there is likely to be considerable nuisance from unpredictable and  high levels of activity.

• This noise could come from talking and shouting (especially when alcohol has been consumed). It will also emanate from other spaces in the building where the as yet even more events could take place.

• Amplified music could cause considerable public nuisance.

• The only possible delivery location for the building is Bidborough Street. Delivery vehicles alread and frequently block the street. Further traffic would mean access will be restricted when additional delveries take place. 

• There is a one way system in operation and if  large vehicles cannot get round the corner into Tonbridge Street, they will attempt to reverse into Judd Street, (this happens already) and is dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists.

• The scale of the operation will require servicing and parking provision that is currently inadequate.

• Public nuisance will stem from the additional traffic that will by necessity drive through the nearby streets along which many people now walk or cycle.

• This traffic (lorries for servicing Eventhia’s businesses or ferrying people to and from the venue) will increase pollution levels, causing harm to those members of the public and the immediate community who suffer from asthma and other lung-related health issues.

• Judd Street is designated a Super Highway (C6) and is extremely well used by cyclists commuting from Kentish Town to Elephant and Castle. Cyclists will be vulnerable to injury if the lorries servicing Bidborough Works are not especially careful. And the erratic nature of drop-off and picking-up manouvres.

Protection of children from harm

• The issues referred to above apply equally to the licensing objective focusing on  the protection of children from harm.

• This is a residential neighbourhood which includes an adjacent  Primary School, a Church, well-used Community facilities, many large mansion blocks as well as terraces of housing. School children pass the building daily.  Many children live in or visit flats within Queen Alexandra Mansions and likely will be exposed to danger

• Noise levels at night, as well as light shining from windows on the second and third floor of Bidborough Works, will cause children who live in flats directly opposite to suffer from sleep deprivation. This in turn will affect their concentration at school and their general health and wellbeing.

• Children can be harmed psychologically by seeing drug dealers in action and people leaving the building who are drunk and disorderly. 

• People on the outside terraces of Bidborough Works could watch children in the playground of Argyle School, and also within the windows of flats directly opposite. This possible surveillance of young people by strangers could cause children extreme harm and psychological trauma.

• The extra pollution from vehicles attending the premises to service the operations in Bidborough Works and to ferry people elsewhere will impact most seriously on children’s health.

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