IN response to your article “Australian city called time on drink … and violence” (The Herald, 3 January) and the accompanying comment from Dr Niamh Fitzgerald (“Licensing boards need to be proactive to cut alcohol-related crime”, The Herald, January 3), the issue is one of sensible night-time management and this does not necessarily mean further restriction or prohibition, although in some cases it might.
A night-time economy can flourish while reducing harms when steps are taken based on a proportionate and level-headed basis. Last year, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, described the city’s lock-out laws as a “sledgehammer” that did not address alcohol harm. Closer to home, a pilot scheme in Fife saw club opening hours extended to 4am and a subsequent drop in anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related incidents.
The public health objective is one of five key objectives under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 and licensing applications are decided with regard to them all, each having equal status. If the availability of alcohol is inexorably linked to harm, no new licence would be granted and no licence would be extended. That is not what the Licensing Act is designed to achieve and nor is it desirable.
The correct approach is, and should remain, that each licensing board conducts a proportionate and evidence-based analysis of what hours may be sensible for a local area according to its policy and treats every case on its own merits. This may mean a restriction or rejection, but it may also mean new or later opening hours.
Stephen McGowan,
Partner and head of licensing (Scotland) at TLT LLP,
140 West George Street, Glasgow.
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