24 Hour drinking to be banned ?

[NickDavies]

[QUOTE=Wittenden;16772

I know I haven't travelled much abroad, and I didn't tend to go to the costas, but I didn't go a bunndle on continental cafes. They didn't, to me at any rate, seem conducive to a pleasant session-it seemed to be more a case of one drink and out. Also, in Italy at any rate, they all seemed to shut at around 10pm. ![/QUOTE]

The sort of people who speak of continental cafe culture are the sort of people whose experience revolves around their second homes in the Dordogne and Tuscany, people like MPs and TV presenters and even Daily Mail journalists. Such places are designed for daytime refreshment and early evening aperitifs and what 24 hour licensing has got to do with it is unfathomable. As you say you're hard pushed to find anywhere open late even in a largish town unless there's a university.

I doubt they were thinking of Spain, where tapas crawling is a national obsession, many people don't think of going out till about 11PM and in summer outside bars spring up in the larger towns which stay open till about 6AM on weekends. Having a two hour kip in the afternoon helps.

[Eddie86]

It's not just 24 hour drinking that should be repealed - the licensing reform on the whole has created a joke industry, and as a licensee, I preferred having to prove myself to a magistrate rather than just being given a card in return for cash from the local council.

Completely agree - it was WAY to easy for me to get a license. 24 hour drinking I'd keep - the only one I know of was in Nottingham, and never had any problems because they wouldn't serve drunks, and were very strict on it. At the end of a night of clubbing as designated driver, it was nice to know I could then go around the corner and have a couple of pints before bed.

Now my pub regularly stays open til midnight at weekends, and on special occasions later. But in the deep midwinter, we can be shut some nights by 10pm (the earliest we close). It's the flexibility I like - just because I can stay open til 3 certainly doesn't mean I do. It just legalised the lock-in in my point of view.

[Wittenden]

Heard a lovely peice on 'From our own correspondant' about a 90 year old landlord in some town on the west coast of Ireland who opened about 1030, or maybe 1130 if he had chores to do, closed for lunch from 1 to 2, re opende and then shut again for his tea. For some reason he also sold groceries and loose teas, which he blended and repacked. Sounds like my sort of pub, if you ignore the Guiness.

[ptg]

I agree with that Eddie, and we do much the same - much to the cry of "you're licensed until 0030, you're breaking the law" when some little so and so doesn't get their own way.

The binge drinking culture is something that needs to be addressed.. My proposal:

TEACH - teach children from a young age that alcohol is something to be enjoyed responsibly
ALLOW - allow children alcohol from a young age to get a taste, and a respect for it - a glass of wine with every meal, with the whole family.
SHARE - share the experience of drinking with the young, when they hit puberty, take them to the pub, and enjoy the experience of drinking, be with them when they first get pissed, and be there to laugh off their first hangover.

That's what would sort out the binge drinking culture, but unfortunately it hinges on the whole social situation, of families not being too busy for each other, and so forth.

Staggered closing is both a blessing and a curse - having worked in central London on nightclub doors, dealing with other venue's fall-out when there's no Police around to control it can be a hairy time, but with good policing, is a good concept.

The whole act needs looking at, but so does the bigger picture. Nearly all "normal" venues that I know of (that are lucky enough to still be around) haven't changed from their pre-2003 hours; midnight licenses and 2am licenses were being handed out at this time, and it seems to be what most places have today.

[HTM69]

OK, so does this mean we’ll be going back to the traditional 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. Monday to Saturday routine and then 11 a.m. – 10.30 p.m. on a Sunday?

My friends and I are rarely in the pub beyond 11, anyway. We have a couple of local late-night haunts, but then they’ve always been open ‘till the early hours. It doesn’t seem like I’d be affected to much this.

[ptg]

in reality, that's something that had started phasing out, with regular late licenses being issued. In all honesty, the only thing we'd sacrifice would be an extra hour on friday nights.. which means I get a lay in.

Personally, I don't think a complete reppeal is needed, just a major review, and pubs to be judged on a case by case basis; magistrates are the key though, as has been said, making licensing a form of taxation has diluted it too much..

[Eddie86]

I think what they need to do is look at how many VDEs are in one place and start limiting that. Why have a street of noisy, JDW-esque pubs where the policy is pack em in and give them cheap booze.

Once a certain street/town/city centre has a certain amount of that type of venue no more should be allowed. Different licenses for different pubs. Complicated, but fairer. If I was a cask ale pub in a street full of the aforementioned VDEs I'd be pissed at having to pay a levy for drunken late night behaviour if it was coming from lager sodden customers of the other pub. If it was my customers, I wouldn't mind paying, but id rather not have the customers like that in the first place!

[Farway]

Once a certain street/town/city centre has a certain amount of that type of venue no more should be allowed. Different licenses for different pubs. !

I think what you are suggesting is Back to the Future, in the 60, and before, local publicans could object to another licence. This system was sorely abused by the breweries defending their local monopoly.

Iit took the Churchillian, Portsmouth http://www.churchillian.co.uk/ years of fighting the then Brickwood's brewery to get a licence, despite being in a nearly complety pub free area, Brickwoods & the tied publicans just wanting to hang onto the monopoly they enjoyed

http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/13546/

[Conrad]

I think what they need to do is look at how many VDEs are in one place and start limiting that. Why have a street of noisy, JDW-esque pubs where the policy is pack em in and give them cheap booze.

To be clear I know nothing about the licensing system (or indeed what a VDE is?). On the surface though I have no problem with them clustering the noisy pubs, preferably away from where people live and supplied with a decent transport system, one of those things where I am more than happy for them not to distribute the misery.

[Maldenman]

I think the biggest problem with this policy is that it packs town centres with younger and boisterous drinkers and all the issues that go with that including detering older or quieter people from going into town on certain evenings and the use of resources from police , ambulance service etc.

I'm guessing here but I reckon a VDE is a Vertical Drinking Establishment?