The community has shared fears for vulnerable young people trying to turn their lives around after a betting shop applied to open up next to a YMCA.

The Licencing Service at Hillingdon Council has received an application for a new betting shop in Station Road, Hayes.

The application, from Coral Racing Ltd, is to turn the Horizon Electronics shop at number 58 into a Coral bookmakers.

The space is part of a parade of shops a stones throw away from Hayes YMCA, also in Station Road.

Hannah Nicholson, youth programmes manager at the YMCA, said: “YMCA West London have over 180 vulnerable young people in supported housing in Hayes and the youth department sees over 190 young people a month through their youth café and various projects.

“We work with all young people, supporting them in a positive way to achieve and reach their full potential. The young people often have to overcome big hurdles and challenges in order to do this.

“To have a betting shop on their doorstep is going to negatively impact their lives and put a temptation in their way that they really don’t need.”

She said YMCA West London would be registering its objection to the application with the council, as did The Hayes Town Partnership.

The Partnership said the grounds for its objection was also the close proximity of the premises to the YMCA hostel and Hayes Young People’s Centre, at the same address close to Hayes and Harlington rail station.

“The Partnership is concerned about the growing number of young people in Hayes who are being drawn into gambling and it believes that it is inappropriate to have yet another betting shop so close to where needy and vulnerable young people live.

“The worry is that a significant number could be tempted to think that gambling is a way out of their problems rather than taking advantage of the training and job opportunities that the YMCA and other agencies are seeking to provide,” it wrote.

A quick search online shows that there are already more than 10 betting shops in Hayes alone. In 2011, William Hill was granted a premises licence to open a shop in Coldharbour Lane despite more than 700 people signing petitions against it moving in.

The Partnership’s chairman David Brough, said: “There isn’t anything that says the council can turn down an application because there are too many other betting shops in the area - but there is an argument for the protection of children and vulnerable people.”

High Point Village in Station Approach opposite the YMCA, built in 2007, is marketed as offering “a thoroughly modern mix of affordable and luxury accommodation, with sophisticated leisure facilities, hotels, shops and restaurants, in a landscaped setting beside the Grand Union Canal.”

Adrian Gill, chairman of the High Point Village Residents’ Association (HPVRA) said many of the people living on the estate are disappointed that what they actually got was far from that - and he said promises of regeneration and investment in Hayes are yet to be seen.

For that reason the HPVRA are also objecting to the betting shop’s application.

“It would be a huge shame to see this area get something that is only going to drag the area down even further. It will drag more people into worse poverty, preying on a community which is already in need of investment and taking more money out of it.

“Betting shops makes money by view of the fact that people in Hayes lose money. We need to see shops coming in that can provide a service and bring wealth to the local community. The only thing a betting shop is going to do is take money out of the community and leave people worse off," he said.

Anyone wishing to make a representation on the application to the council have until Tuesday, September 30.