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| Law change exhausts activists |
OPPONENTS of the new 24-hour drinking laws complained last night
(Thursday) that they were in a “David and Goliath” situation.
Members of the Covent Garden Community Association (CGCA) and St
Marylebone and Soho societies have been forced to attend numerous
licensing meetings dealing with dozens of applications from bars
asking for extended hours.
CGCA boss Jo Weir said: “We have been absolutely swamped and
we have been working our socks off to monitor all the applications.
We have never seen anything like it. We have been fortunate to have
several good volunteers helping us.”
Ms Weir attended three meetings this week. She added: “We are
just volunteers. One brewery owns a huge number of bars and they
can get top barristers. It is David and Goliath stuff.”
David Bieda, from the Soho Society, added: “We’ve had
around 500 applications, and more than 300 are variations.”
And he said objectors were not allowed to attend appeals at magistrates
if an initial application was rejected. He said: “We can only
appear if we are invited as witnesses for the council.”
Just this week there have six licensing committee meetings dealing
with 100 applications.
A Westminster Council spokesman admitted it was a massive task.
He said: “The number of meetings and sheer volume of work reflect
the scale of the task facing us.
“We still feel the government could have done more to ease
the burden on councils and licensees.” |
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