Plans for adult gaming centre turned down

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

Plans for an adult gaming centre on a city centre street with three betting shops have been turned down.

Swansea Council planning officers said the proposal for two adjacent units on Union Street, Swansea, would create jobs but that a gaming centre for people aged 18 and over would “fail to sustain the vitality and viability” of the city’s retail core.

They said the preference would be a food, drink, recreation or arts enterprise if retailers weren’t interested in the vacant units.

Their decision cited Wales-wide planning guidance which acknowledged that Covid 19 lockdowns had a profound impact on the economy and that increased vacancy rates and a lack of demand for retail premises were anticipated. However, planning officers also said that given significant investment in the city centre, such as the new indoor arena and conversion of upper floors along Oxford Street into flats, a rise in city centre footfall was expected to continue.

Club shop

The side-by-side units used to be a Swansea City AFC club shop, and after that a gift shop which left in February this year. Gaming centre applicants iLudo82 Ltd said their new business would have created nine jobs and been open 24 hours a day, generating evening footfall, with a new tanning salon open from 9am to 9pm on part of the first floor.

A marketing agent letter submitted to the council said the proposed gaming centre appeared to be the only realistic occupier. “Otherwise, the premises could remain vacant for a very long time,” it said.

Planning officers said the vacant units had been marketed from June 2023 but that an occupier – the gift shop – had been secured in the intervening period on a short-term basis, indicating that there was some retail interest. “The marketing information fails to provide sufficient evidence that the unit has been marketed for a reasonable time frame in excess of 12 months since the last retailer vacated the premises in February 2024,” said the decision. There was no conclusive evidence, it added, that alternative uses had been explored.

Adult gaming centres were a new category of premises introduced by the 2005 Gambling Act. Only certain types of gaming machines can operate in them and there are licensing requirements. Applicants iLudo82 Ltd can appeal the council’s decision.

There are three betting shops further up Union Street towards The Kingsway, and plans for a fourth on Union Street – where retailer Shoezone used to be – were turned down by the council last December.