City pubs attacked for alienating over-35s

City centre licensees have come under fire this week for alienating over-35s.

A licensing expert for Bristol police said that licensees in high street outlets could do more to encourage the older generation to come into the centre on a weekend night, while at the same time discouraging crime and boosting profits.

The police claim that by focusing their offer on younger drinkers, outlets are adding to problems of violence and binge drinking and discouraging the older customers from coming into the city centre on busy weekend evenings.

They claim that over-35s are less likely to drink to excess or become involved in late night violence, and often have more cash to spend.

"Many licensees in the city centre are alienating a larger part of the population who have a lot of money to spend," Carol Ajinkya, licensing officer for Bristol police, told thepublican.com.

"These people are put off by the fact that there isn't a fair mixture of age groups as well as males and females."

The police said that those pubs around the outskirts of the city centre that employ an over-25s only policy were often trouble-free. Two pubs in the area, Tantrick Jazz and the Bunch of Grapes, were praised for never making a call to the police.

This adds to criticism last month from Superintendent Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester Police.

He too said that licensees were losing out on a huge profit potential by ignoring the more mature customers.