24Hr Drinking.. Good or Bad?

[Thmsshaun]

I think its a good idea. Although alot of pubs haven't even taken up the chance so people will hardly notice anything different.

The majority of trouble IMO is cause by everyone being kicked out at the same time. Spreading that out will surely help the problem. I think though the majority of bars will take advantage of it.


For example should it be a really busy saturday they will stay open a few extra hours to cream in the cash.

Puts a whole new meaning to an all day session

 

[kikkthecat]

The majority of trouble IMO is cause by everyone being kicked out at the same time. Spreading that out will surely help the problem.

Most certainly a bad idea.

The biggest problem now is that the vast majority of pubs that have applied for an extension have done so for the same time, 1-00am, so all that will happen is the trouble will be delayed 2 hours.

Central Bradford at night is already a no go area for sober people and my idea of going out for a drink doesn't invlove coming out of a pub to be faced by dozens of Police, some with dogs, as I try to make my way home through all the vomit and blood on the pavement. It happens at least 4 nights a week in this godforsaken town and moving it forward 2 hours just means they can get some more down the neck before it starts.

 

[Rumble]

I would rather have daylight between 6am and 10pm everyday of the year rather than 24 hour drinking! lol if only!!!!

 

[Rose Chap]

At first I thought this was a bad idea, what with the number of boozed up scallywags invariably in every town centre every night from Thursday to Saturday, however the more I think about the more in favour of it I am.

I'm all for personal choice and liberty, and giving people the freedom to make their own decisions and mistakes. Therefore, if they want to drink for 24 hours straight let them, if they want to have a few drinks with friends and not have to call it a night at 11 then all the better.

Freedom of choice has got to better than fixed rules.

 

[Benzowner]

I answered I don't care. The reason, if you want to drink 24 hours at present, you can. You can stock up from your local supermarket and drink yourself into oblivion when the pubs shut, or get plastered before you go to the pub.

As regards the vast majority of pubs applying for 1:00 am licenses, the reason for this, as far as I am aware, is that because the licensing is now a local authority issue not majistrates, it makes everything easier if the pub requires an extension for a birthday party or wedding reception, they do not need to apply for an extension, which I think will no longer be available.

Lets face it, the only group who want 24 hours opening is the supermarkets. They want to be able to sell their wares 24 hours a day and I am sure if possible 7 days a week not the Sunday hours we currently have. Staff costs and availability of good staff will determine if it is economical for a pub to stay open 24 hours.

And yes Rumble, I'm with you on the daylight hours

 

[pammy]

Lets face it, the only group who want 24 hours opening is the supermarkets. They want to be able to sell their wares 24 hours a day and I am sure if possible 7 days a week not the Sunday hours we currently have.

Only if it's economically viable. Our Sainsburys has tried this a few times and it just hasn't worked. It's proved that here anyway, people will only go shopping for so many hours of the day.

I voted for this as I think flexibility is the answer. Premises should be licensed to sell alcohol and they need to determine when they should open. Common sense would suggest that Friday and Saturday nights are going to be the long ones granted, but the vast majority of venues will still look to close at a reasonable time as most customers will have gone home as they have work the next day.

People still only have the same amount of money to spend, but I'm not sure all shutting at the same time is a bad thing - at least people can't go from one to the next etc etc. Sadly many large town/city centres are no go areas on a Friday/Saturday night unless you are a participant. Only time will tell if it does make things better or worse.

jmho

 

[Ian B Walker]

I voted "dont care" mainly because I dont drink a lot these days. But maybe it would be nice to nip to the local pub at 6:30am for a drink on the way home

 

[Ashley]

That’s just what a pub has done outside one of the main gates of Vickers in Barrow, Cumbria. Good luck to them.

We opted for a 3am cut off every day. We are in the fortunate position of having night porters so it will make no real difference to how we run the hotel. I do wonder what affects it will have on some of the one man band pubs.

This area does not have a problem with the so called kick out hour. Why because our local police have not enforced licensing laws for years and most bars apart from the night clubs do not observe the 11pm deadline. We also have an affective bar watch scheme.

IMHO the reasonability for a safe drinking environment lies with the venue, but unfortunately with so many of our pubs now being part of pubCo’s the tenants are finding it so hard to make a living they are to scared to upset customers good or bad.

For example I buy Stella at 95p per pint and sell it for 1.95 plus vat (2.30) making a pound a sale, now if I was a tenant of a pub co I would be paying £1.35 a pint and making 60p. Our break even is £4,000 a week excluding vat. Now a pub co tenant running our operation would have a breakeven of 6k a week on sales and this is not taking the rent of the tenants into consideration.

 

[glojo]

The majority of trouble IMO is cause by everyone being kicked out at the same time. Spreading that out will surely help the problem. I think though the majority of bars will take advantage of it.

Not an easy question to answer, but staggering the closing times is a flawed arguement. Just look at the Mediterranean holiday resorts that have to put up with the disgusting behaviour of our holidaying youth. (is this a British thing?) They already have the type of opening hours that we are discussing.

I personally don't believe that there will be a great increase in actuall ALL NIGHT opening. Pubs will now be in direct competition with Night Clubs and it is these clubs that are going to suffer by loosing trade, hopefully the public houses will shut at 2am, but clearly here in a holiday area during the summer periods there are going to be MAJOR problems.

Councils have a responsibility of care to their employee's. At 3am there are cleaners on our streets removing all the take-away containers, vomit, urine and all the other litter that is left. If there are still violent disturbances taking place, then the cleaners will simply not be allowed to work so at 8am when folks start coming in to work they are going to be faced with some very upsetting sights??

Police Forces are going to suffer as they generally have a duty scheme that will give extra cover up to 1, or 2am. After that you just have a single shift that is there to deal with reported incidents (usually crime or domestic violence)

In the whole of Torbay, Paignton, Torquay and Brixham, this relates to just FIVE officers. If they have to deal with a drunken crowd, then clearly that will tie up all the night cover???? Larger cities obviously have more officers, and the Metropolitan Police have Police ciming out of their ears

So basically I would be happy if there is sufficient Police on the ground to deal with this minority of vomitting, fighting loud mouthed thugs. Incidentally I'm not convinced that we will see more drunks on our streets, I just believe they will be performing at a later hour.

I'm going to have to have a look at the different options now.

John

 

[996jimbo]

On the whole I reckon the new legislation is a good idea.

The legislation also makes it the Local Authority that grants the alcohol license (instead of the magistrates) which makes more sense and means pubs don't have to have live bands / DJ's in order to stay open later (the old system require the LA to issue an entertainments license so that the magistrates could then consider a later liquor license). The new legislation also enables the LA to have a published policy on licensing so the whole process should be more open and consistent and accountable.

In our area everyone has pretty much applied for what they had already though with a number of the more central pubs going for an extra hour. Personally I don't think it will make much difference to public order generally.

 

[Mambo]

I think the thing that needs to be controlled is the binge drinking culture (not sure how though!). Although 24 hour drinking will stagger kick out time it will still mean that there are drunken yobs on the street, it just means they will be out later and be more plastered.....

 

[Cronos]

On balance it's a good idea if it provides people an opportunity to socialise when they want to an not be treated like children.

I used to live south of the border and was frustrated that my evenings out were forced to an abrupt close at 11pm.

Since moving back north, where opening hours have been more liberal for a significant time, I appreciate a less proscriptive approach to how long my evenings last.

There are problems with binge drinking and anti-social behaviour in our town centres, but there are not caused or solved by altering opening hours and moreover it's wrong to dictate to the majority based on the actions of a minority.

 

[guydewdney]

My old local has / had a 1 am licence for thursday, fri and sat.. new laws make no difference really -

Its a town centre pub - but it has a very very low level of problems - i think its partially down to the laid back attitude of the people in there - they know they are not getting kicked out at 11. That and the mahoooosive bouncer on the door

 

[Thmsshaun]

Not an easy question to answer, but staggering the closing times is a flawed arguement. Just look at the Mediterranean holiday resorts that have to put up with the disgusting behaviour of our holidaying youth. (is this a British thing?) They already have the type of opening hours that we are discussing.


John

Very interesteing vote staying pretty evely split.

Good point John but then that is another argument. It could be said that the culture is like that because of how stringent our laws are.

Other good points you raised.

The thing is all bars are not going to open around the clock and if venues stayed open till 4am I think the majority would have filtered out by 2 / 3. Although I am probably talking from my own poit of view.

 

[Lazarus]

I voted good idea, simply because I am an adult who likes to have a drink and I don't need to be told when I can and can't socialise.

One statistic I'd like to see being recorded is the increase in the number of people who are caught over the limit the morning after.

Where I live, we've been having the good old-fashioned 'lock in' for as long as I can remember and no trouble, but then I live in a village (by my own choice).

The larger social problem is the general increase in the abuse of alcohol by the public en masse. Young people drinking, and indeed, getting drunk is not a new phenonemon no matter what the right-wing press says.

Legitimising and instantiating abusive anti-social behaviour as a part of British culture is the true problem here.

*Steps off soapbox*

 

[andy_k]

I like the idea of being able to go for a drink when it suits me.

Many times in the evenings when all the usual household stuff is done it's just too late to go out for a drinkl, an extra couple of hours is just what we need.

I don't think it will result in people getting more trashed than before - all they have to do now is go on to a nightclub.

This allows people to come and go more freely and that has to be a good thing

Andy

 

[glojo]

I would dearly LOVE to see a 'lock-up' type facility where all these obnoxious anti-social idiots are detained, and then when they are sober they are taken into the town centre\city centre and made to clean up there own stinking filth Oh and of course their cells\prison vehicles etc

I understand what some folks are saying about their right to go out for a quiet drink at whatever hour they choose, and I accept that different areas have different standards, but are they saying that there will be pubs remaining open until two or three in the morning where you can go for a 'quiet' drink??? I simply have visions of mainly larger pubs that cater for a 'different' type of clientele applying for this type of extension.

I also firmly believe that this binge drinking is a new thing particularly when it applies to so called ladies???

I thought that there were pubs in London that were indeed open very early in the morning to cater for the fish market, the old Fleet Street etc??

Regards,
John

 

[SilverSaloon]

bad idea. why change things when we are still seeing so many drunk driving, attacks from drunkeness etc etc.

basically just moves problems to 1am etc when the pubs will close, where they will be more drunk and cause more trouble.

i dont drink much nowadays so its all IMHO....

if they want to drink 24hr now then just buy in some booze and drink at home.

 

[Sp!ke]

I think for a while it will be a little crazy out there on a saturday night. After 6 months to a year, people will have learnt that there's no need to 'go for it' before closing time and will learn to pace their drinking.

On the continent, people stay at home, have a nice meal and only go out at midnight. A very different drinking culture that will take a while for some to adopt. Me... I think its about time we had a change and look forward to being able to having a choice of where to drink after 11pm.

 

[janner]

The legislation also makes it the Local Authority that grants the alcohol license (instead of the magistrates) which makes more sense

I think this is one of the problems. Not many business owners would mess with magistrates but councils are a pushover. Since the handover to councils I know of three pubs that have opened without planning permission or an alcohol licence.
I'm still waiting for my late night licence to arrive but it won't stop me opening whenever I want. Councils are hopeless!

It makes you wonder who actually wants this legislation though. The police don't seem keen, pubs don't want it (they won't make more money). Strange.