Newham Council's decision to award a large casino licence to Aspers will fail to deliver real benefits to residents, it has been claimed.
The London Borough of Newham announced on March 11 that Aspers’ bid to build a casino within the new Westfield Stratford City development, close to the site of the 2012 Olympics, had been successful.
However, within hours of the decision being made, questions were being asked about the merits of the winning bid, particularly the level of regeneration it will bring to the area.
Following reports in the mainstream media that rival bidders are now planning to launch a legal challenge, City & Eastern, the lead developer of the Great Eastern Quays Casino proposals, has publicly criticised the local authority’s decision to place a casino in a part of the borough that requires the least regeneration.
"Our bid had a clear, substantial and transparent financial benefit to the resident of Newham," said Fergus Kinloch, director of C&E. "This included an initial cash injection of £7.5m, a minimum annual guaranteed payment to the borough of £2m and 1,200 full-time jobs.
"The £250m scheme would have significantly regenerated another area of Newham, a core requirement of the bidding process. It would also have supplied three times more full time jobs than the winning bid."
