Scottish Beer and Pub Association hits back at Aberdeen 'overprovision' claims
The comments come in the SBPA’s response to the City of Aberdeen’s licensing board’s consultation on review of statement of licensing policy.
The draft policy identified two areas in the City which it believes have an overprovision of licensed premises. It added: “There is a presumption against the grant of a premises licence in both these areas.”
The SBPA said it is unsure on what basis that the licensing board has reached this conclusion, and does not believe there is an overprovision of licensed premises.
The association also expressed doubts about the board’s plan to withdraw licences where premises were closed and the payment of an annual licensing fee became due, compulsory requirements for CCTV systems, and questioned why some outlets providing “significant entertainment” should get additional trading hours in the early into the morning.
'Not proportionate'
The SBPA called on the licensing board to carry out an assessment of its strict CCTV policy which has been in place for two years. SBPA chief executive Patrick Browne said that the policy is not “proportionate or balanced”.
In the response SBPA’s chief executive, Patrick Browne, said: "The association would question the Board’s apparent intention of continuing to allow some operators more flexible trading hours later into the evening and early hours of the morning where they provide ‘significant entertainment’.
“This flexibility does not appear to be evidenced by the Board in its current policy with reference to the licensing objectives under the 2005 Act. For example, the current policy appears to class ‘snooker’ as being ‘significant entertainment,’ but ‘pool’ as ‘not significant entertainment’.
“We are not sure on what basis these distinctions between certain activities have been made.”
Browne added: “We are still unconvinced about the merits of the Board’s CCTV policy for ‘late opening premises’ and are not aware of any evidence having been produced justifying the policy by the police or the Board given it has been in operation for two years.
“On that basis we would ask that the Board carries out an assessment of the effectiveness of the policy before allowing it to continue given we do not believe that the policy is proportionate or balanced.”
