Human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger has called on Kensington and Chelsea Council to use every power available to stop a 24-hour gambling centre opening opposite Earl’s Court Tube station — declaring: “Enough is enough.”

Looking striking in a black designer suit, with white gloves and a Panama hat, Jagger cut a distinctive figure as she rose to address more than 150 residents packed into St Cuthbert’s Church in Philbeach Gardens last night.

The audience fell silent as she spoke passionately about the threat she believes another round-the-clock gambling venue would pose to children and vulnerable people in the neighbourhood.

“This is the wrong place for another 24-hour gambling venue,” she said.

Speaking not only as a human rights campaigner but “as a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother”, Jagger told residents: “My concern is how it will impact our community. How do we protect our children and vulnerable people from harm? How do we prevent crime and disorder? How do we protect the safety and wellbeing of the people who live in our communities?

“And, perhaps most importantly, do local people and their elected representatives actually have the power to say No when they believe that their community is at stake?”

Thursday night’s meeting was the latest round in a long-running campaign by Earl’s Court residents against Silvertime Amusements’ plans for a new Adult Gaming Centre (AGC) at 177–179 Earl’s Court Road.

Silvertime already operates a smaller venue at 169 Earl’s Court Road and wants to move into the much larger former Lloyd’s Bank premises, opposite the station on the corner of Hogarth Road. Silvertime owns that site after buying it for £3,450,000 in 2024 from a businessman – revealed last night to be “Mr C.D Patel”.

The company suffered a major setback in April when RBKC’s Planning Applications Committee overwhelmingly dismissed its application following a campaign which generated around 1,000 objections.

But in July, a separate council Licensing Sub-Committee granted Silvertime a new Adult Gaming Centre premises licence for its proposed new site, subject to a series of conditions. One requires the existing licence at No.169 be surrendered before gambling begins at the new premises.

Silvertime is seeking to overturn the planning refusal, meaning the wider battle is far from over.

Jagger told the meeting: “Earl’s Court is already becoming a gambling hub, with betting shops and Adult Gaming Centres located within a very small area. At some point, saturation has to mean something.”

The intense row has taken on national significance following Government proposals to strengthen the hand of councils and communities in deciding where gambling businesses can operate.

The Government has announced plans to scrap the controversial “aim to permit” approach to gambling licensing and introduce Gambling Impact Assessments aimed at giving communities greater power to challenge concentrations of gambling premises.

Jagger said: “Local people know their neighbourhood. They know where children walk to school, where older people feel unsafe, where antisocial behaviour occurs, where people experiencing addiction seek help and where public services are already under pressure.

“Their experience must not be treated as secondary to a technical licensing process.”

The meeting also heard from Kensington and Bayswater MP Joe Powell and councillors Linda Wade, Liberal Democrat member for Earl’s Court, and Tom Bennett, Conservative member for Redcliffe.

Powell told The Chelsea Citizen that if a planning inspector overturns RBKC’s refusal, he will ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, to intervene.

“It’s not a step frequently used on something like an adult gaming centre and it may be a first,” he said. “I feel confident, given the rapid change in Government policy, that we can use this case as an example to demonstrate what the new policy will look like.”

Powell has previously raised Earl’s Court in Parliament as a case study in communities resisting the growth of Adult Gaming Centres, highlighting the area’s existing gambling businesses as well as hostels for people with complex needs and methadone-dispensing pharmacies.

Will Prochaska, from the anti-gambling campaign group CEGA, launched a fierce attack on Silvertime, describing it as “a seriously predatory firm”.

“They pick locations in seriously deprived areas,” he claimed. “People in these areas are less likely to gamble, but they are more likely to be harmed by gambling.”

He also claimed: “Silvertime makes 60% of its profits from 5% of its customers.”

“The content they’re selling on their machines is highly addictive and that is their business model,” he said.

His claims were made at the public meeting. The Chelsea Citizen has not independently verified the figures.

Prochaska said the turnout at the meeting demonstrated the strength of feeling in Earl’s Court: “People have just had enough of it.”

Cllr. Bennett stressed that opposition to the proposal crossed party lines and promised campaigners on-going help and information as the planning appeal progresses. He also underscored an earlier pledge by RBKC Leader Cllr Elizabeth Campbell that the council will dig deep to pay for any legal challenge that comes from the well-resourced Silvertime. He revealed that  legal fees will cost a minimum of £100,000 and could raise significantly.

Cllr. Wade said the closure of the Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre had badly affected the neighbourhood, stripping away trade and hotel business and contributing to economic decline.

She argued that the resulting deprivation had created fertile ground for gambling businesses seeking to expand in the area.

The Earl’s Court Society – led by Francesco Zibellini – promoted Thursday’s meeting. It has been campaigning alongside residents against the expansion of 24-hour gambling in the neighbourhood. More than 70 people also attended the April planning meeting at which Silvertime’s application was rejected.

Jagger urged RBKC not to give up the fight.

“The Council now has an opportunity to send a clear message,” she said. “It can say that local communities matter. It can say that cumulative impact matters. It can say that the wellbeing of residents must be taken seriously.

“And it can say that there comes a point when enough is enough. I believe we have reached that point in Earl’s Court.”

The Chelsea Citizen spoke with the representative for Silvertime, but the company is refusing to release a statement. request for interviews with the two directors of the family-owned company that has operated since 1995 were also rejected.