Arcade may switch to bookie's

An application has been made for a betting office licence by Robert Fuller, boss of Goodwin Racing, in New Town.

If successful in his application, the Uckfield bookie will take over the lease of 29 High Street from Shaw Leisure, a company based in Tunbridge Wells.

Nicholas Shaw the man behind Shaw Leisure faced fierce opposition from Uckfield traders and councillors in his attempts to bring an arcade into the town.

Members of Uckfield's town council and chamber of commerce voiced serious concerns about the effect an amusement arcade would have on the town centre when news of the bid was announced, in the summer of last year.

Traders and councillors thought an arcade would attract delinquents and encourage school children to play truant. The town's police and college chiefs also expressed opposition to the news.

Wealden planners threw out Mr Shaw's application in July last year. However, a Government inspector overturned that decision in February this year.

Mr Shaw said: 'There has been a lot of hostility towards me. Not from the local people but from the chamber of commerce and traders.'

However, he insisted he would not be driven out of the town: 'We're not being hounded out. I've never been hounded out from anywhere.

'We've got a very good clientele in Tunbridge Wells and I'm very well respected by the traders and the council. And the police have not had a complaint about us in 12 years.'

He said that if Mr Fuller's licence application was refused, he would keep the amusement arcade open. 'I'd probably refurbish it,' he said.