Campaigners protesting against plans to open a Co-op supermarket in Belsize Park

• I OBJECT strongly to the application for a drinks licence for the Co-op, (Backlash over campaign to stop Co-Op opening village supermarket, August 30).

1. Belsize Village is a very small village and there are already two outlets which sell alcohol.

2. The hours they have applied for are outside the usual hours granted, the purpose no doubt is to sell alcohol for as long as possible thus attracting people who could provide a threat to the area.

Bearing in mind there has already been a very significant amount of burglaries in the area, some shops having being targeted multiple times (and I use the term “targeted” advisedly, smashed windows stolen produce, tills etc).

The number of burglaries have been much higher than would be expected for such a small parade. The addition of another alcohol licence it seems to me would greatly aggravate the situation. As far as I know nobody has been caught.

3. The Co-op will actually add very little to the area. Eighteen months ago when this idea was first mooted a petition was started which attracted many signatures to the extent that the Co-op told some people, including myself, that the plan had been abandoned.

Now 18 months later it would seem without consulting the locals they have gone ahead and now refuse to have a consultation with the local people most affected by their presence; which doesn’t suggest to me that their protestations of adding to community life and supporting the community are real.

4. There is a school within 300 to 400 yards which will not benefit at all by another alcohol licence.

5. There is also a pedestrian only area with a number of benches which will undoubtedly attract undesirables coming for the alcohol, which in turn will increase crime.

6 Belsize Lane is a very friendly close run village where the mothers and children congregate and play in the square after school and enjoy a coffee in one of the cafes, that is likely to be jeopardised and threatened by another licence.

In a village where the retail units are not much more than a stretch of 200 to 300 yards another alcohol licence will do nothing as the Co-op says to enhance community life, quite the contrary it could well ruin it.

7 Camden has recently turned down an application for Tesco to move into the main parade in Belsize Park as a result of the community’s rejection of the idea.

I appreciate that was an application for planning for a change of use and this is only for a liquor licence. However the principle is the same the local community didn’t want a store like Tesco in a much larger area of shops quarter the size of Belsize Lane.

How much more significant should the community’s rejection of the Co-op licence be taken when the area involved is so much smaller therefore the effect so much greater.

I strongly object to this licence.

CHARLES SALMON QC