Multi-million pound Walsall bingo hall set for go-ahead

Mecca Bingo Limited submitted the proposals for Park Street at the end of August.

Now the council's planning committee members, who meet next week, have been advised by officers to give them the green light. The hall will have a Luda bingo room, cafe area and electric lounge – featuring the jackpot machines.

Walsall councillor Aftab Nawaz said the scheme would 'ruin the town centre' and drive shoppers away. He added: "We need to try and get a more diverse mix of businesses. We do not want a high street full of gambling outlets.

"I don't think this would be attractive to shoppers and would instead drive them away. We are trying to regenerate the town centre but we are seeing more and more of these types of establishments."

Councillor Adrian Andrew, deputy leader of the Conservative party in Walsall, said: "This development is not right for Park Street.

"We have been trying for a number of years to create leisure areas in the town, which is what this is, but not in retail areas."

In a report to the council, Mecca bosses said the firm would spend £12 million on its lease for the site, and refurbish the currently vacant units for £900,000.

The company said there would be 25 new jobs up for grabs, in full and part-time positions. It also said it hoped to draw in 300 people per weekday, and up to 500 people at weekends, to play its Luda concept of bingo.

The bingo hall, trading under the Luda name, would be open from 7am until midnight Monday to Saturday and between 9am and midnight on Sunday.

The building, which lies in the Bridge Street Conservation Area, has been vacant since February 2015 when clothes shop Diffusion left the site.