A shopkeeper has said his convenience store in Old Market, Bristol is being unfairly blamed by the police for a hotspot of crime and antisocial behaviour.
Local Store, at 42A Old Market Street, has been run for a decade by Vas Anwar, but could soon be taken over by a new owner. Police and trading standards said his shop was selling alcohol to underage teenagers, laughing gas under the counter, and illicit cigarettes.
The shop was linked to more than 100 police reports over the past three years, and police said drunk people were often seen drinking outside. Bristol City Council’s licensing sub-committee has now revoked Mr Anwar’s licence to sell alcohol at the Local.
But Avon and Somerset Police faced questions about their evidence, during the licensing hearing on Thursday, September 22, as well as claims they were misrepresenting statistics. Representatives for Mr Anwar said many police reports came from shop staff phoning 999 and “trying to do the right thing” about issues outside, for which he was now being penalised.
Frequent customers also said the shop is used as a landmark, so many people phoning police might name it as an address, despite the incident potentially having nothing to do with the Local. Other concerns included the impact of a nearby squat, which has now been shut down, but previously caused a huge rise in crime and antisocial behaviour in the area.
Between 2019 and 2022, police recorded more than 100 incidents linked to the Local. According to a police licensing officer, 50 of these were outside the shop, including begging, assaults, and threatening behaviour; and 58 were reported inside the shop, including assaults on staff, assaults by staff, criminal damage and theft. About a third of the incidents were reported to the police directly by shop staff.
Licensing officer Louise Mowbray said: “The squat attracted a large number of the homeless community, who have tended to congregate outside the Local. There is a recurring issue with aggressive, drunk individuals outside the premises, with no attempt to move on or staff being too intimidated to move them on. Reports have described people from the squat purchasing alcohol from the premises, drinking it openly, and residents being scared and unable to sleep.
“There was a fire at the [squat] over a year ago, and as a result of the fire the police secured the premises, restricting access. However, reports still continue to be recorded by the police of aggressive, drunk individuals outside the Local, despite the squat being shut over a year ago. The sheer scale of reports, incidents and ongoing issues is disproportionate to any other licensed premises locally. The premises must take measures to address this.”
Trading standards also found 14,400 cigarettes in a nearby office used as storage for Mr Anwar, which they seized. He told the licensing committee they were for personal use, for him and his family, and were bought duty-free on trips abroad.
Five minutes walk away from the Local is Logos House, a homeless shelter with 92 rooms run by the Salvation Army on Wade Street. Sergeant Maz Collacott-Nuur said many people staying there were drug or alcohol dependent, and often bought alcohol from the shop.
She said: “I have seen people that are just so drunk that they can’t stand up. I’ve seen one guy dragging himself along the pavement. And these people are still there when children are walking past on their way to school. So this has a really big impact on the families who live there, and as a local sergeant I feel almost powerless to support them.”
But Piers Warne, a licensing solicitor representing Mr Anwar, said only six police incidents have been linked to the Local this year. These included a drunk person outside falling over, a scooter theft, staff receiving nuisance phone calls, and a shoplifter assaulting a staff member. Incidents in previous years were also not the fault of the shop’s, he added, but problems rose “exponentially” when the neighbouring building was used as a squat.
He said: “There’s a clear record of them refusing people, trying to do the right thing, calling the police about that, and now it’s being held against them. It just simply doesn’t stack up when you look at these statistics. Three allegations are of assault by staff members against customers who have been refused sales and forcibly ejected — one of them is someone phoning up saying ‘I’ve been wrong-changed and I want the police to come and deal with it’ — but that’s recorded as crime data against the premises.
“You have to be very careful with these statistics, because otherwise you get a completely unclear position. I think this sends a bad message to other premises who would want to do the right thing. There are a lot of premises who hold the view ‘I won’t call the police because if I do it’s going to be held against me’.”
The Local will now likely be sold to a different shopkeeper, who will apply to the council to take on the premises licence. Mr Anwar said he wanted to stop working in his shop, and focus on his health and spending time with his family. But before the sale goes through, he won’t be allowed to sell alcohol.
Councillor Richard Eddy, chairman of the committee, said: “We were not persuaded by the police evidence relating to the linkage of antisocial behaviour with this specific shop. But clearly there have been significant serious failings by [Mr Anwar].”
Charles and Rhonda Henderson, owners of SPAR Parkhall, are celebrating 15 years serving their community as a SPAR store.
The store opened in 2005 trading as MACE Parkhall until 2009 when they began trading with Henderson Group, under the SPAR brand. Upon opening, the store had just 12 employees which has since doubled to 24 people from the local community working in the store.
Over the years, Charles and Rhonda have made major investments into the SPAR Parkhall store totalling £290,000, completing five significant refurbishments to bring the highest quality products and services to their shoppers.
“We’ve invested significantly over the years to make five major refurbishments which have transformed our store to bring even more products to shoppers’ doorsteps, including an extended range of fresh and locally sourced produce,” Charles explained.
Being a hub for their local community, the team are dedicated to the local organisations and charities that are close to the hearts of their staff and shoppers and have raised over £25,000 for Marie Curie.
“Our team have worked hard over the years to create a community focussed store and fundraising for Marie Curie, a charity close to our hearts, has been at the forefront with numerous instore events and initiatives over the last 15 years to raise an incredible amount for the charity,” Charles added.
“We want to thank our loyal shoppers, without whom, we wouldn’t have had the success our family business has had over the past 15 years as a SPAR store. Our Post Office is also a central point of our store, for which we were awarded Best Rural Post Office at the Post Office Awards back in 2012. I want to thank our Post Office staff who always go the extra mile for our shoppers.
“We love serving our neighbours, seeing friendly faces every day and knowing we are a hub in our local community which has always been very important to us.
“We wish to extend a huge thank you to our shoppers for their support since we opened back in 2005. We are committed to serving our community and we look forward to many more successful years at SPAR Parkhall.”
Patrick Doody, sales and marketing director at Henderson Group, which owns the SPAR franchise in Northern Ireland, commented: “We all send our congratulations to Charles, Rhonda and the whole team on this business milestone. They have grown a store that sits at the core of their community, providing everyday essentials and a hub for the local area and we wish them every success for many more years to come.”
Henderson Retail said its new EUROSPAR Doury Road, built upon the site of the old SPAR Doury Road store, has completed the final stage of its build.
Bringing 16 new jobs to the local community, the supermarket has already been hailed as “absolutely outstanding” by shoppers who have submitted their feedback to the store, including that it is an “asset” to the local area.
21 staff from the previous store will continue in their roles at EUROSPAR Doury Road, bringing the total team number to 37, headed up by store manager, David McFall who has been with Henderson Retail since 2007.
Having the honour of opening the store after phase one of the build was Charmaine Dicky who has also joined the Henderson Retail team after working in the previous store for 40 years, and is a much-loved member of the local community.
“We have had a soft opening since early November where Charmaine cut the ribbon to our store, revealing the new services to our local shoppers, from the food-to-go deli to our in-store Fergus Butchery, run locally by Derren Logue and team, alongside the re-introduction of essential services including the Post Office,” McFall commented.
“Everything our shoppers need is under one roof here at their new community supermarket, including fresh, locally sourced produce, our own brand SPAR Enjoy Local range of bakery products, fresh meat, cheeses and ready-prepped meals, alongside The Kitchen products, all of which are made in Co. Antrim by SPAR’s team of chefs using locally sourced ingredients.
“We’re thrilled to have the final piece of the puzzle complete with the new 56-space car park, alongside the full range of services, now open to our shoppers and neighbours who have been so patient with us throughout the 43-week building project.”
The shop also boasts local Ballymena brands in-store, including Barr’s Deli and their range of fresh meats, alongside RJ Kerr’s Bakery products, all sourced, prepped and made in the local area.
Alongside everyday essentials for shoppers doing the ‘big shop’ or picking up something for tonight’s tea, EUROSPAR Doury Road also brings much-needed service station facilities to the area, providing a new six-pump Maxol forecourt, a hot food to go Delish deli, catering for breakfast and lunch, alongside prepared meals to heat and eat for dinner, and additional Barista Bar Coffee to Go machines.
EUROSPAR Doury Road is Henderson Retail’s final project completion for 2024, having invested £30 million into community retailing this year.
“EUROSPAR Doury Road is the perfect example of how our EUROSPAR brand enhances local retailing services and facilities for those within the community, providing everything they need under one roof at value prices,” Mark McCammond, retail director at Henderson Group, said.
“EUROSPAR also offers Tesco Price Match on over one thousand products in-store, and the footprint of Doury Road has now nearly doubled to provide an even greater range of locally sourced fresh produce, alongside our homegrown and handmade own brands.”
The store recently fundraised for Cancer Fund for Children, EUROSPAR’s official charity partner in Northern Ireland, with a pyjama day in-store. McFall said EUROSPAR Doury Road will also continue its community engagement, providing support and sponsorship to local schools, charities, community groups and organisations including Ballymena Primary School, Dunclug Nursery, Doury Road Development Group, High Kirk Church and Slemish Nursing Home.
“Community is everything to the team here and we will work hard to engage with our shoppers to make a difference to the local groups and organisations that are important to them,” McFall concluded.
Fujitsu should have shown more "remorse" since failings of Horizon IT system emerged, minister Gareth Thomas has said while claiming that all those who had applied for compensation would have received "80 per cent of the amount" by March 2025.
After an intensive year of testimony and revelations at the public inquiry, Thomas recently suggested more could have been done by Fujitsu since the truth about Horizon emerged.
“I’m surprised Fujitsu haven’t done more to indicate remorse. It was a computer system they developed," The Guardian quoted Thomas as saying.
“I’m glad they’re still working with the Post Office to make sure the current Horizon system [works], which the Post Office is still having to use while a replacement is in development; I’m grateful to them for the fact that they’re continuing to work with us.
“But clearly there were significant failings, or it would appear, at least, that there were significant failings in the computer system. And we’ll obviously wait for Sir Williams to opine in full on that issue.
"I think I’m just surprised that they haven’t … wanted to do more," he said.
At the start of 2024, Fujistu, which is forecast to have earned more than £1.5bn from the Horizon contract by the time it expires in 2025, apologised for the role it had played.
The Japanese company also said it will negotiate a compensation package with the government after the public inquiry led by the former high court judge Sir Wyn Williams has published its report.
Talking about compensation to the victims, Thomas claimed that all those who had applied for compensation would by March next year have received 80 per cent of the amount offered even if the total sum was still under dispute.
“There are a series of complex cases still to be sorted, although we have made a lot of progress in just the five months since we’ve been in government. The amount of compensation that’s been paid out has doubled since we came into office," he said.
The Post Office expects to have paid out more than £650 million in compensation to branch owner-operators by next March, and it has put aside £1bn.
Commenting on the buzz on the future of Post Office model, Thomas expressed his doubts on the proposed idea of mutualisation.
He said, “My instinct is that, one of the ways you transform the culture of an organisation like this is to give more power to those who were treated very badly in the past.
"We’ve got to think through what are the incentives that you build in to the governance of an organisation like the Post Office that really gives postmasters much more of a voice in the key decisions the board of the Post Office has to make going forward.
“Given that the Post Office has got a significant social value in that sense, I don’t think I’m as yet convinced that full mutualisation is the way forward. But how do we ensure postmasters can hold those at the centre more accountable?”
It was reported earlier that the government is looking at the future ownership and structure of the Post Office. The Communication Workers Union has proposed handing it over to branch operators, known as mutualisation.
The Scottish Government must urgently act to support the country’s struggling high streets, Labour has said, citing an analysis' findings that more than 10,000 retail jobs were lost in a year.
The data, based on the Scottish Government’s Business in Scotland report, showed that retail jobs in Scotland are at their lowest levels since at least 2010. It found there were 235,920 retail jobs recorded this year – down from 246,270 last year and 258,900 in 2010.
The drop was the sharpest in the last year. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, more than 10,000 jobs were lost from the industry – almost 1 in 20 retail jobs. In 2023 there were 246,270 retail jobs.
While there has been a shift to more online shopping, the impact of the covid pandemic can be seen in the statistics.
Between 2010 and 2020 the decline in retail jobs was around 8000 over a ten-year period. Between 2020 and 2024 however, the drop was almost 15,000 in just four years.
Scottish Labour has criticised the Scottish Government for not extending rates relief to the retail industry.
During her budget earlier this month, Finance Secretary Shona Robison announced a 40 per cent rates relief for the hospitality sector. Labour has called on her to match England and extend that tax cut to the retail sector.
Daniel Johnson, Scottish Labour economy spokesperson, said “The decline of our high streets is impossible to ignore.
“The pressure on retail businesses is bad for Scotland’s economy and for local communities.
“We need a real plan to support retail and breathe fresh life into Scotland’s high streets – including short-term rates relief and a long-term plan to level the playing field between local businesses and online giants.”
Johnson said the Scottish Government can still make changes to the budget for next year to help businesses with a similar scheme.
The draft budget, presented by Finance Secretary, Shona Robison, will be debated again in the new year before a final vote in the Scottish Parliament in February.
A significant proportion of shoppers are expected to shop in person during the Boxing Day sales in a considerable rise from last year, shows a recent research.
According to a research by Barclays, Brits this year are likely to are expected to splurge £4.6 billion with each shoppers poised to spend £236 during the Boxing Day sales, suggesting consumers will be actively participating in the post-Christmas sales.
These figures are down slightly on those reported in 2023, when shoppers spent £4.7 billion during the Boxing Day sales — about £100 million more than this year. The average shopper is forecast to spend £18 less than in 2023.
However, each shopper is still expected to spend £50 more than in 2019, before the pandemic.
Researchers said that while some of this growth “will be down to inflation”, some of it can be explained by a “continued desire to use the post-Christmas sales to seek out value for money”.
More than a quarter of the British public are expected to shop in person during the Boxing Day sales, up from 15 per cent in 2023.
While some bricks-and-mortar retailers have confirmed that they will not open on Boxing Day, 26 per cent of those who plan to shop in the post-Christmas sales say they will spend the majority of their money in-store.
This is driven by a preference to see and touch items before purchasing (41 per cent) and the enjoyment of socialising while shopping (32 per cent).
High streets (33 per cent) and shopping centres (32 per cent) are the most popular destinations. Meanwhile, 17 per cent cite wanting to support their local high street, and a further 15 per cent plan to shop with independent small businesses.
A third of Britons (34 per cent) say they’d be more inclined to spend at brick-and-mortar retailers if they were offered discount codes that can only be redeemed in-store, or if they were given a free item with in-store purchases (27 per cent).
Men are expected to spend £53 more than women during the sales.
The research also showed that 24 per cent of the public “will only be buying what they consider essential items in the post-Christmas sales”.