Aerial view of Peterborough Cathedral near proposed gaming center expansion site. (Image: Clare Jackson / Alamy)

A proposal from Harris Brothers Amusements Limited to enlarge one of its adult gaming centers to offer a variety of gaming machines, such as slots and other gambling devices in Peterborough has attracted considerable condemnation from two of the men seeking to represent the English city in Parliament.

The Peterborough Telegraph reports Harris Brothers Amusements Limited is already responsible for six adult gaming centers across the east of England, including a New Horizon-branded outlet situated along Peterborough’s pedestrianized Bridge Street.

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Restrained Request

The Henfield-headquartered operator lodged an official change-of-use application with Peterborough City Council late last week, seeking permission to enlarge this city center enterprise via expansion into a vacant retail unit located next door.

This adjacent single-story space once hosted an outlet of discount retailer The Works while Harris Brothers Amusements Limited asserted its proposal would bring the empty premises ‘back to life’ and allow its New Horizon-branded enterprise ‘to appropriately expand into the unit’.

“The application is the extension of an existing adult gaming center unit and would not be a ‘new use’ or new operator to the area,” read the application from Harris Brothers Amusements Limited. 

“Adult gaming centers are considered to be complementary town center uses, and the change of use is supported by the development plan.”

Considerable Censure

However, this proposal has drawn condemnation from the current Member of Parliament (MP) for Peterborough, Paul Bristow, with the Conservative asserting it is ‘time to draw a line in the sand’ and not allow ‘more gambling dens in our city center'. 

The MP for the Cambridgeshire city of some 218,000 people since 2019, Bristow, has now written to the Chief Executive for Peterborough City Council, Matthew Gladstone, to ask for the petition from Harris Brothers Amusements Limited to be denied.

In his letter, Bristow declared gambling to be ‘a public health issue with potentially devastating consequences’ and asked council members not to welcome a ‘horrendous’ enterprise into Bridge Street ‘that causes harm and delivers no discernible benefit to the people of the city’.

"These places are also just not right for our city center,” Bristow wrote. 

“They encourage, quite frankly, the wrong reasons for people to travel into the city, and they are also not right for individuals, for friends, for families, or for wider communities.”

Contentious Claims

Bristow went on to proclaim Peterborough City Council has ‘a duty and a responsibility to protect those vulnerable to the risks’ of gambling and implored local leaders to ‘do what is right for the city center’. The 45-year-old also warned the adult gaming center expansion could lead to ‘anti-social behavior with people on the streets at all hours’ with such conduct often featuring ‘street drinking and aggressive begging’.

“I have spoken with many people about the serious effects of gambling addiction, which, in the worst cases, can even lead to suicide,” Bristow’s letter read.

Challenger Conformity

The United Kingdom is set to hold its next general election on July 4, with well-known Labour activist Andrew Pakes looking to take Bristow’s seat in Parliament. Nevertheless, the 51-year-old candidate agrees with his Conservative rival regarding the unattractiveness of the Harris Brothers Amusements Limited plan and recently joined the campaign to block the New Horizon expansion.

“No more gambling shops; it is time to stop the rot and take back control of our city center,” Pakes said.