This weekend, Ed Miliband called for a ban on payday lender ads on children’s television. Whilst this can only be a good thing, it does not change the physical presence and impact of these “financial services” establishments on communities like Shepherd’s Bush.
Over the last few years, we have seen a proliferation of gambling, payday loan and pawnbroker shops on Uxbridge Road between Shepherd’s Bush Green and the police station on Tunis Road. There are now seven in this 240-metre stretch.
Last summer, I was curious about the new payday loan shop opening a few doors away from the Job Centre. Their signage looked similar to me and I wondered whether they were linked. So when I saw children tugging at their parents’ sleeves to go inside the new loan shop, I decided to take a peek myself. Alongside the windows were bright children’s tables with colouring-in material and free balloons. And close to the friendly shop assistants, tables were laid out with a spread of free food.
This is in stark contrast with the grumbling staff and security guards at the entrance of the Job Centre. The possible journey is obvious: Step into the Job Centre and discover your benefits have been cut or stopped. Step outside, worried, and lo and behold, there is an array of welcoming places ready to give you cash on interest, or for one of your rings. And this is if you’re not the one with the gambling habit who might want to try to win it all back.
I may not have noticed any of this in my pre-parenting days, but I can’t avoid their presence as we pass them twice a day on the school run. My daughter and I have had many conversations where she asks: “Mummy, does that shop just give you money?” and “They must be nice people because it says they are ‘right here for you’?” She knows she is categorically forbidden from taking any goody bags or balloons from the men in green morph suits; and this is the one time when I refuse to smile in a polite British manner.
To add to all this, I heard that St Stephen’s school had applied for permission to expand one of its playgrounds into the small grassy area on Uxbridge Road between the church and the main school gates, the section by Ladbrokes.
This was to be part of the school’s doubling in size to meet the need for more primary places in Hammersmith & Fulham. Whilst it was okay with the church, planning permission was rejected. This was on aesthetic grounds because the playground would obstruct the view of the church.
I don’t particularly care about the ugly shopfronts of the pawnbrokers and gambling shops but I do care that whilst there’s no restriction on them, there is on a school growing. And this is to take over a spot where I have seen quite a few men topple over the small wall on their way to relieving themselves by the school and church, whilst hundreds of children walk past.
This October, Southwark Council announced that it will ban any new betting shops, pawnbrokers and payday loan shops in the borough. Will Hammersmith & Fulham have the sense to follow in their steps?
About the Author:
Alex Blackie is a Shepherd’s Bush writer, mother and big fan of the portfolio career. She’s published in the broadsheets, has a weekly column on Anglo-Australian family life in London, her own blog and loves working at Kite Studios. She spends most of her spare time writing stories and playing word games with her daughter. Photograph by Clara Molden.
