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The people of trendy Barnes in south west London are revolting - mostly, it seems, about what they see as a glut of estate agents' offices in their local parade of shops.

There are now 15 on Barnes High Street and after winning national newspaper attention earlier this month, local traders are now speaking out. It doesn't bring people into Barnes, does it People come to Barnes to shop and not look at estate agents' offices. They can do that anywhere, says local butcher Kevin Sullivan.

Meanwhile Barnes Community Association says the latest decision of local authority planners to allow the change of use of a former shop to yet another agency office has caused its members to be devastated especially as this comes close on the heels of a decision to allow change of use to an estate agent over the road which still stands empty.

This is just the latest in a series of local campaigns against the proliferation of agents' offices. There are some 24 agents' offices out of 75 units on Hoe Street in Walthamstow while in Dorking, Surrey, there are 13 agency branches out of 42 shops.

Planning relaxations have allowed increasing numbers of estate agents - and, under the same classification, betting offices - to move into some redundant retail units without requiring additional consent. Some local authorities such as Kingston in south London have lobbied for a tightening-up in planning rules to prevent this happening.

Comments

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    At least they pay their rates and employ local staff. People selling a few apples and some homemade wine get away with paying neither. Its the agents who proablably pay these hard done to 'non' businesses benefits the rest of the time.

    Completly media created estateism...i like that

    • 25 April 2014 13:15 PM
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