MPs hopes to encourage return of early-evening resort drinking

Scarborough and Whitby MP Robert Goodwill has called for this united front in a bid to roll out a co-ordinated licensing strategy that will cut back opening hours and boost the early evening economy.

He hopes this will tackle problems with excessive drinking and bring a café culture to the seaside resorts.

Mr Goodwill, who is working closely with the Scarborough safer communities partnership, as well as accident and emergency services in the area, said: “What I want to do is get pubs and clubs in Scarborough and Whitby to come to an agreement to cut opening hours. I would like to see pubs close at midnight and clubs shut at 3am or 4am, instead of 6am.

“What has happened since longer licensing hours were brought in is drinking has just got later.

“The licensees are open later but they actually haven’t been taking any more money as people are getting tanked up on cheap supermarket booze first. When they arrive in pubs or night clubs they are drunk already so they don’t spend a lot of money in there.

“Also the fact that people aren’t going out much before 11.30pm means that between 8pm and 11pm the town centre is dead. This used to be the most vibrant time of the evening. The change will encourage people to go out earlier in the evening which will help the economy in the long run.”

Mr Goodwill said the initiative would also cut costs to taxpayers as police would no longer have to be on duty until 7am. He added that accident and emergency staff would also see a reprieve during the early hours due to fewer alcohol-related incidents.

“I have written to the Home Secretary Theresa May as I would like the Home Office to take interest in this,” he said. “We need to persuade as many pubs and clubs as possible to participate in this pilot and hopefully the Home Office will see how it works and roll it out across the country and follow on with legislation to limit opening hours.”

Paul Murray, a licensee and chairman of the Scarborough Pub Watch Scheme, said he believed most independent pubs and clubs would support the move.

He said: “The top and bottom of it is if you were to go around all the people involved in what we term the night-time economy, which includes, taxis and takeaways, as well as pubs and clubs, they would say lets take it back to what it was five or six years ago when it was more money, less hours and less overheads.”

However Mr Murray said cutting back licensing hours would only solve one half of the problem.

“Since licensing hours were extended people have got used to buying cheap booze at supermarkets and drinking at home and are getting pre-loaded before they go out. Cutting back opening times will help to boost the night-time economy but it’s not getting to the core of the problem - the problem of cheap alcohol at supermarkets has to be tackled as well. The two need to go hand in glove,” he said.

Janet Jefferson, president of the Chamber of Trade and a Scarborough Borough Councillor, also supported the initiative and said the move would also curtail binge drinking problems in the town.

“We are trying to turn away from the total drink culture of late hours,” she said. “There’s such a long gap and you don’t see people out on the streets until 11pm and we have to shorten that gap and thereby reduce problems caused by drink within our town centre. It can only be good healthwise as well.”

Inspector Tony Quinn, from Scarborough Police, said many of the problems associated with the night-time economy were attributed to the sale of cheap alcohol in supermarkets, which encouraged people to drink at home go out later.

“In our opinion the late night opening of pubs and clubs has added to the problems and resulted in a situation where nobody other than the supermarkets win,” he said.