Norfolk has right idea
I was both saddened and heartened to read the news story in last week's Morning Advertiser about the couple in North Norfolk who say they were 'forced to apply for 24-hour licensing.
Saddened because they obviously misunderstood the very sensible message they were getting from their local licensing officer. And heartened, because even along the Mundesley shore they clearly know the right way to go about things!
For example, on Saturday of this week the British Lions take on the All Blacks in the first test, and will show them what's what, I hope. But they do it at 8am British Summer Time, which is a mite too early for normal licensing hours for on-licensed premises.
The thought of rugby fans sitting watching a key match without a beer is too awful to contemplate. So, quite sensibly, there have been a number of applications for special orders of exemption extensions to cater for the three tests.
No one in their right mind is going to object to that, in prin ciple. People should be allowed to make a choice to have beer with breakfast, and they will. The current extension system gives them that opportunity.
Under the new law, extensions will be abolished. You will either give a temporary event notice to cover the time or, more sensibly, you will have included early morning in your variation application, to cater for just such events.
After all, we do not run a 10-year calendar with all sporting events and other celebrations listed on it. None of us can predict exactly when these occasions will occur. But if you fill in your variation application sensibly or are fortunate enough to run a pub in North Norfolk then you will be covered for whatever arises in future.
This is exactly what the flexibility of the new law was devised for, not for 24/7 binge boozing. At the risk of boring you, that was exactly what they did on the Isle of Man a few years back, and by all accounts it is working pretty well.
The object of the exercise is to free up all those premises which want the flexibility to open, like the Bull in Fakenham, when there is a good crowd in or there is some special celebration, and to close when the trade is so poor you are just wasting electricity.
After all, it is going to cost you no more to seek a 24-hour variation with an explanation of why you want it, than it is to argue the toss about 12.30am or 1am as a cut-off point. Artificially early closing times, as the Government has pointedly remarked, is what often triggers disorder and violence. It is no real surprise to me that New Year's Eve, which is now completely deregulated, is arguably quieter in terms of disturbance than a normal Saturday night in the city centre.
It seems to me that there are two issues here that tend to get confused the length of permitted hours and areas where alcohol-fuelled disorder takes place. The second is quite rightly of concern to the authorities and measures are in hand to try to cope with it. But the flexible approach of the new licensing laws should be given a chance to prove its merits, not get embroiled in the binge argument.
If the police are not side-tracked into checking on whether an extra pint is being served at the Dog and Duck at 12.35am, then they can concentrate their resources on the pubs that are centres of disorder, can ask for a review of their licences and can seek conditions or closures. But start with the North Norfolk approach and 99% of pubs, or more, will trade sensibly and responsibly.
