15/08/05 - Licensing Laws Silence Local People

LICENSING LAWS SILENCE LOCAL PEOPLE

Shadow Minister for Local Government, Eric Pickles, today warns that new licensing laws are undermining local democracy by preventing local councillors from objecting to inappropriate late licences in their area.

Conservatives

In order to push through Labours binge drinking agenda, elected local representatives are being gagged so they cannot stand up for the interests of their local community. It is wrong that so-called human rights laws are being used to push through late licences that will damage local residents quality of life.

The whole new licensing system is now in disarray. Village halls, sports clubs and community centres have been hit by exorbitant new licensing fees. Local pubs have been deluged with volumes of complex paperwork. The only people who stand to benefit are the high volume, vertical drinking establishments who will be able to ply more alcohol into the early hours, irrespective of the views of local people.

Labour

1. Under the new licensing laws, local ward councillors may not make an objection to any application in their own right. If there is no objection, a licence is automatically granted. Councillors can only object if they live in the vicinity, and even then, they must declare a prejudicial interest which prevents them from attending any licensing application hearing.
2. During the passage of the legislation, the Government declared, they [councillors] should not be able to exercise a veto over the wishes of local residents and businesses or to gainsay the views of experts on individual licence applications. There is also a danger that arming ward councillors with the power to make representations in their own right, even if they do not live near the premises concerned, would lead to a hearing in almost every application. That would significantly undermine the deregulatory gains and savings that the Bill is designed to deliver (Kim Howells MP, Hansard, Licensing Bill Standing Committee D, 6th Sitting, 10 April 2003, Col. 225).
3. Many councils monitoring officers are now being advised that owing to the Human Rights Act, they should not allow councillors to sit and consider applications from their own ward, because of possible bias against pubs and clubs (Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services, The role of elected members in relation to Licensing Committee hearings under the Licensing Act 2003, February 2005, pp. 11, 19, 24).

Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats flagship licensing policy is to lower the drinking age from 18 to 16, which would fuel binge drinking amongst the young. As their official licensing spokesman, Don Foster MP, has said, we have a belief that the age of 16 should be consistently used for all issues16-year-olds should be able to buy alcohol (Hansard, 25 January 2005, Cols. 184-5).

Cllr Justin Tomlinson, North Swindon Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman, "This was an issue, myself and Robert Buckland (South Swindon Conservative Candidate) ran with during the last election, which was hotly denied by the Labour MP for North Swindon. It is totally unacceptable that local representitives are unable to object to applications. Elected Councillors are there to represent local residents, yet again Labour would rather ignore local residents.