I'll be honest - as I hope we've been from the outset - and say no, we'd then move on to one or more of our other areas of concern and we'd look for a way to lobby the council around those. The generous alcohol license being applied for is but one of the reasons for our opposition - it just happens to be the one area where the council has formally invited feedback from the Forest Hill community at this stage - hence the current campaign.

Michael makes a fair point, asking whether there are indeed sufficient grounds for the council to consider our objections from a technical licensing perspective, and I'll concede that he has a lot more experience in this field than I do so I won't labour this point, other than saying we've decided to take a shot at it to see what happens.

Overall, even though there seems to be different people coming at this from different angles, it seems that there is a general view that this requires a healthy debate, using both formal and informal channels and I definitely welcome that.

Regarding being snobbish about gentrification - I can't speak for other people but I can say from my perspective that it's the exact opposite. We have a couple of genuine, local retailers on London Rd & elsewhere competing in this space that could hardly be described as "upmarket", but I feel much happier seeing them continue to trade rather than our high street being ever more dominated by generic chains.

And finally - I'll reiterate that it is of course up to each and every individual to decide whether they want to sign the petition, and ultimately up to the council to consider whether it has any merit.