Councillor fuming as company based near 'Jaw's Beach' in the Bahamas plan on opening new 24/7 casino in 'third rate' Northampton town centre

A company based near Jaw’s Beach in the Bahamas is set to have its plans approved to open a 24/7 ‘Little Vegas’ casino in Northampton town centre – leading to heavy criticism from one councillor.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is set to approve plans to turn the former Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop in Abington Street, which closed down in 2020, into an 'adult gaming centre' on the ground floor.

The proposals, which were submitted by Chongie Entertainment Ltd, are set to be approved at a WNC planning committee meeting on Tuesday evening (February 7).

A WNC spokesman said: "Overall, the proposed use would reinstate an active frontage on this part of Abington Street and bring a vacant unit back into use. The proposed adult gaming centre use will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, There will also be increased natural surveillance as a result."

Chongie Entertainment Ltd – which is registered in Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, close to ‘Jaw’s Beach’, where parts of the 1987 cinema classic ‘Jaws: The Revenge’ was filmed – said the proposals will “increase the vitality and viability” of the centre along with the creation of eight new jobs.

However, the one councillor against the plans, Labour's Danielle Stone (Castle ward), is wondering 'what the council is thinking'.

She said: "I am unhappy about this. And I wonder what the council is thinking of. We keep being promised that the town centre will be regenerated to be attractive to visitors and family friendly. It seems to me that different council departments are working against each other instead of working together. More and more casinos, more and more betting shops just makes us look like a third rate town. I want us to aspire to be better than that."

The councillor previously told this newspaper that casinos and betting shops are 'like a tax on the poor'. Councillor Stone said: "This does not fit with the vision for Abington Street as an attractive family friendly area with a mix of residential and up market retail.

"We already have too many casinos, betting shops, pawn shops, loan sharks in the town all chasing the money of disadvantaged households. It's like a tax on the poor.

"We need retail that will draw people into the town, that will increase footfall, that will help stimulate the local economy.

"Our town centre needs an uplift not a down turn."

Two other 24/7 'adult gaming centres' have opened in the last year and a half in the town centre, one in Fish Street, which offers customers free coffee while they play, and one on at the former Moon on The Square pub on Market Square.

Before his sudden death on November 4, veteran trader Eamonn 'Fitzy' Fitzpatrick criticised the casino opening on the Market Square.

He said: "We are going into the biggest recession this town has ever seen, this is the last thing the Market Square wants opening.

"These places are evil. Children go hungry because of their weak parents using these so-called 'entertainment venues'."