Lorely Burt MP - Lorely's Life w/c 3rd Oct 05

12.31.38pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th Oct 2005

24th November is D day: Drinker's Day, that is. On this date the new licensing rules come into force and most pubs in Solihull will be able to open until 1am or even later.

For people already suffering from noise and other nuisance from homeward bound pub customers, this can hardly be welcome news.

New government rules have meant that licensing committees composed of councillors are mostly powerless to stop these licence extensions, although they can impose conditions and have done so, right up to specifying what time one pub can empty their bins.

The real remedy against irresponsible landlords, we're told, is in the residents' hands. We need to keep a record of incidents, report them to the police and make sure we get an incident number. If enough complaints are received the licensing committee can relatively quickly and easily recall the licence. So, theoretically we have more, not less, power than before.

But noise and anti social behaviour which happens away from the pub cannot be held to be the responsibility of the landlord, unless he or she has knowlingly served customers when drunk. So residents won't necessarily be able to stop late night noise by objecting to the licensee's late licence. I would therefore question whether residents will really have more power.

On the positive side, it will give more freedom of choice, particularly to shift workers. And since people will only have the same amount of money to spend but longer to spend it in, we could see a decrease of anti social behaviour, not an increase.

Also landlords do not have to open their doors if there are insufficient customers to make it economically viable, and few are intending to open for all the hours they are licensed for. Maybe it will all turn out to be a lot of fuss about nothing. Maybe.

Being a Liberal I believe in people having the freedom to enjoy themselves. But that should never be at the expense of the freedom of local residents to enjoy their peace and quiet as well.