Good News for Alcoholics and the Oil & Booze Industry
Yesterday the licensing committee for Hanwell granted a licence to the Shell garage in Church Road to sell alcohol. Only from 8am to 11pm though, mind you. There are some limits.This is good news for those characters in the local debating society who congregate on the bench in the garden of St Mellitus as they will have more choice of outlets from which to buy the substance that is destroying their lives.Some say it’s a good compromise as the initial request was for a 24 hour licence. I think that’s a defeatist view. I think it’s bad news for our area and we should have resisted it with all the means at our disposal. But maybe I’ve got too much faith in democracy.I would have hoped that local councillors would be the ones to defend our community from the malign avarice of big businesses pedalling alcohol to vulnerable addicts and petrol to the car dependent who are poisoning our atmosphere. But no! The licensee is a councillor himself, Shital Manro.Ok maybe that does fit the character of such a person if they are Conservative. But again, no! He is a Labour councillor. The Ealing Council website tells us that he holds a licence for six petrol stations in the borough. How is helping ordinary people? He’s just profiting from two of our century’s most abused substances.People of North Greenford, don’t vote for this man at the next election. He has made a mockery of our system.
Alan Anderson ● 4534d1 Comments