Westminster City Council has told the West End’s leisure industry that its controversial A3 policies are the only remedy for “a city at bursting point”.
But some have accused Westminster of “passing the buck”, by making managing the area’s nightlife the responsibility of leisure operators.
Carl Powell, Westminster’s director of planning, defended the council’s policy of restricting late licences at a meeting of West End leisure agents, land owners and licensees, organised by the Restaurant Property Advisors’ Society last night.
Westminster’s policy has recently been challenged in court by bar operator Chorion, which runs the Loop on Tenterden Strett, W1.
Powell said the policy was the only way to reduce the problems caused by “late night revellers” in the West End. In the past ten years the capacity of late night venues has risen from 33,000 to 128,000.
According to a Westminster-produced video, alcohol-related crime levels have risen considerably in the West End, along with what the council describes as “yobbish behaviour”.
Powell argued that the “right balance had to be struck” and that the local leisure industry had to “trade up or die”.
Edmund Schama, of leisure agency Shelley Sandzer, said: “The policies are stymieing the cities most valuable commercial asset, and not dealing with the real problem.
“Most of the problems relate to the lack of police in the area.”
Emma Davis, of Berkeley Simmons Davis also challenged the council’s policy, saying that limiting licensing times was “killing off the city”, and damaging London’s status as a 24-hour world city.
EGi News 23/11/01
