Liberal Democrat councillor David Schmitz is the latest politician to join the fight against vast numbers of betting shops building up in the borough.

Cllr Schmitz (Harringay) says the Government was wrong to reject the latest proposals which would have given Haringey Council greater power to prevent the shops from springing up in the borough.

He says there are too many betting shops already in Haringey and the gambling industry often squeezes money from poorer members of the community without re-investment in the area.

He said: “In some places betting shops are not a problem, and there is no need to burden the local planning department with applications that no one would object to.

“Here in Haringey, of course, the need to require planning permission for new betting shops is overwhelming.

“My view is that the Government has made the wrong decision, and I will be pressing MPs to change it.

"This is a serious problem, and it deserves to be dealt with seriously by government at all levels.”

Betting shops can currently open up in any building previously used as a restaurant, café, pub, bar or hot food takeaway without need to apply for planning permission from the council.

Due to their current planning classification, betting shops have access to approximately 45 per cent of all shops in Haringey.

Retail expert Mary Portas tried to convince the Government to give betting shops their own planning class in the Portas Review, but her proposals failed to get the go ahead.

Labour MP David Lammy and Councillor Nilgun Canver (Lab, St Ann’s) told the Haringey Independent last week that they are on a mission to tackle the problem of betting shops in the borough.

They, like cllr Schmitz, believe the Government was wrong in refusing to back the Portas Review and would like to see Haringey Council given more power to turn down planning applications for future betting shops.

According to Haringey Council, there are 65 betting shops in the borough to date.

Cllr Schmitz has criticised the Labour-led council’s failure to employ Article 4 directions, which could give the council some say on stopping the shops from coming to Haringey.

Article 4 is currently the only way for a local council to prevent a betting shop from setting up in the area.

However, the direction is rarely used as it is expensive, complex and puts the council at risk of having to pay high compensation costs.

The Lib Dem politician said: “The problem is not that these shops exist, but that there are so many of them and that there is little check on their ever increasing numbers.

“Their number is increasing, not because there are more people who want to have a flutter on the Grand National, but because these shops have gaming machines which extract large amounts of money very efficiently.

“This money comes from poorer people, and it goes out of the area. The number of these shops is quite simply a blight.”

A William Hill betting shop reopened on March 23 in Tottenham High Road, following its destruction in the London riots.