Chris Maclean: We are drowning under a sea of red tape

This week is National Vegetarian Week and National Walk to School Week. It appears there is a week for just about everything.

To cap it all this morning a letter dropped onto my mat from our borough council announcing that this week is also Noise Action Week. Have they nothing better to do?

Under the guise of offering "free advisory visits" they highlight the powers and the penalties that can be applied to licensed premises. They specifically note powers granted to the Environmental Services (aren't they the EHO's?) for Night Noise Offence where fixed penalty notices can be issued with a maximum fine of £5000.

They then spell out what constitutes a noise - the permitted level is defined as 34 decibels(dB) where the underlying level of noise does not exceed 24dB, or 10dB over the underlying level where this exceeds 24dB.

Now I fully accept that running a licensed premises entails certain responsibilities. Specifically we dispense alcohol to responsible adults for consumption in a controlled environment. It is the central characteristic that distinguishes publicans/innkeepers from other personal licence holders who flog slabs of cheap beer from supermarkets.

We are responsible for the conduct of those who consume alcohol on our premises and, perhaps controversially, we have some responsibility for their conduct when they are leaving the premises. I accept that when they leave the pub and noisily assemble outside shouting and squealing it can be difficult, but I believe the good licensee will endevour to minimise the impact using a variety of methods. We have a duty to our neighbours and our communities to operate without causing distress.

What is worrying for me is that this is yet another layer of legislation that seems to ignore existing legislation and exists almost for the sake of itself. I thought the Licensing Act, with its specific provisions for Late Night Refreshment licensing set out with this issue firmly at the forefront. Premises which were disruptive and noisy could be punished and closed down for allowing such disruption.

So three distinct issues arise for me; firstly this is yet another piece of legislation we licensees must accomodate. It is difficult to believe how we, who simply intend to run a simple hospitality business, are expected manage the enormous raft of legislation.

I have made a request to the British Institute of Innkeeping that they provide a lifeline in the form of a library of paperwork necessary for us to comply with it all: risk assessments, contract, fire risks, PAT testing, employment law, licensing law, health and safety, waste management, first aid, smoking law and so forth. The list is enormous and, by any normal measure, impossible for any reasonable person to embrace.

Secondly, the petty powers of local government are often spiteful and vindictive. They are not restrained by the normal factors like money. They are empowered to pick off, seemingly at random, individual transgressors. Not displaying a "No Smoking" sign on the door? A £500 fine here. Transferring empty bottles to the bottle bank with out a waste transfer license? Another fine.

Its bad enough. But the Noise Act 1996 and the Night Noise Offence is more damaging still. This is an act likely to be triggered by disgruntled neighbours and vexatious opponents. This will create division in communities.

Finally, once again the drinks industry is treated as one amorpheous lump. It follows a pattern of thinking that starts from the premise that "problems" are caused by alcohol.

By over-inflating the idea of "problems" (health issues, violence, crime etc) and linking it to a "cause" - alcohol - a whole movement is founded. Police, government, health officials, employers and town clerks all demand that the "cause" of the "problem" is addressed. No distinction is made: we are all in this together.

My concern is that because we are all lumped together we all get treated with the same blunt instruments. This is unfair. As I stressed earlier as publicans/innkeepers we dispense alcohol to responsible adults for consumption in a controlled environment. We should be proud of this and not get lumped with areas of the drinks industry that fuel the anti-drink movement.

Until we get this problem sorted we will continued to buried by the idiotic legislation like the Night Noise Offence.