Blackheath Village is set to get an Asda Express convenience store after Greenwich councillors agreed to give it an alcohol licence.
The store had been hotly opposed by neighbours, with 72 individual objections received as well as one from the Blackheath Society, the local amenity group.
But a panel of three councillors approved the licence, to run from 7am to 11pm every day, after a hearing last week. The decision was only published on Thursday, seven days after the meeting.
The committee members — Labour councillors Joshua Ayodele (Woolwich Arsenal), Dominic Mbang (Woolwich Dockyard) and Dave Sullivan (Kidbrooke Park) — said in their decision that Asda was a “responsible and reputable operator” that would not attract street drinkers to the area. They also welcomed the fact that Asda had pulled back from plans to serve alcohol until midnight after discussions with the police.
Asda will take over the former Lloyds Bank on the corner of Bennett Park. One neighbour, Richard Kiveal, said that the “very large number of young families” living in Bennett Park had to endure “very significant antisocial behaviour” from customers of existing pubs and off-licences in the area.
“This includes loud shouting and altercations, vandalism and public urination, which is deeply unpleasant for the residents and leads to disruption late at night,” he told the licensing sub-committee, blaming customers of Shepherds Foods and the railway pub opposite.
John Barron, of the Blackheath Society, said the amenity group had “never received so many concerns and objections about a particular issue like this”.
The village is divided between Greenwich and Lewisham boroughs, and Barron asked councillors to bear in mind that while there were just eight licensed premises on the Greenwich side of the border, Lewisham had issued more than 35 licences.
While the village was a retail hub, Barron said It was “commercial at ground floor only – at first and second floor, it’s almost exclusively residential”.
Another objector said that Asda Express’s customers would litter the heath with drink cans if the store got the licence.
Asda’s solicitor, Richard Taylor, said the company had over a thousand alcohol licences and that he had never had to defend it at a licensing review. “That is testament to the quality of the company’s policies, its procedure and how it runs its stores,” he said.
Taylor said the store already had planning permission except for the signage and 85 per cent of the range would be for non-alcoholic products. A planning inspector approved plans for a retail outlet in 2022 after an application by the Danish bakery chain Ole & Steen.
“What we want to do is sell a limited range of alcohol products as we do in every other Asda convenience store, so that if you as a commuter on your way home from the station, want a bottle of wine or a pack of beers along with your groceries, along with your ready meal, we’d like to sell it to you,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”
“We’re not providing a drive-to destination venue,” Taylor said. “If somebody wants to go to a big Asda, there’s one just over a mile away in Lewisham.”
Councils can refuse licences if they decide there are already too many pubs and off-licences in a specific area. However, the committee said they could not apply this rule because most of the other licensed premises were in Lewisham.
Asda will not be the first major chain to open in Blackheath Village – Morrisons acquired the McColls branch when it took over the chain two years ago – but the only convenience store in the village that opens late is the pricey independent shop Shepherd Foods, opposite the station.
The unassuming former bank branch has some historical significance as the site of the grander Alexandra Hall, built in 1863 as swimming baths but soon converted into a meeting hall. The building was sold to Lloyds Bank in 1928 and some of its decorative features were removed.
Lloyds closed in 2020. There are now no banks in Blackheath Village after Barclays closed in November 2022. That branch is now being converted into a medical aesthetics clinic.
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