Mark Jones' move to pay for policing at two of his Yates's b

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Jones will not have made the decision to stump up lightly. And, no doubt, he'll argue that bolstering police resource in a fewlocalities is no...

Jones will not have made the decision to stump up lightly. And, no doubt, he'll argue that bolstering police resource in a fewlocalities is no commitment to opening his cheque book every time there is late-night trouble in a circuit containing a Yates's.

But large groups like Spirit, Mitchells & Butlers and JD Wetherspoon and myriad other smaller town-centre operators will resent bitterly the lever this gives police and politicians to prise out contributions from the pub sector.

Holding the line against this new stealth tax has been firm policy with the big pub boys ever since the idea was first mooted. And although there have been embarrassments like Peter Street in Manchester, when local S&N Retail pub managers were happily paying for extra policing until their bosses forbade them, that line has been fiercely defended.

Jones is following other late-night operators like Bob Senior at Ultimate Leisure in coughing up. And as it's not cheap Senior has paid the police £100,000 in Newcastle, they obviously feel it's worth it.

But the pub trade is right to set its face against the trend. Not just because it already pays enough tax: everyone is being forced to pay twice for things these days. No, it's right to resist, because there are better ways to combat the problem than paying for an extra bobby twice a week and making that payment relieves the pressure from the police to work with the trade to find those solutions.

At a meeting last week, the Home Office secondees from Manchester police force, Jan Brown and Steve Greenacre, outlined their plans to roll out the Best Bar None awards scheme. As we highlighted in the MA's Responsible Drinks Retailing campaign last year, this initiative has had a dramatic effect in reducing town-centre aggro.

So many small but good ideas such as lockable bottle bins on the dancefloor can flow from Best Bar None discussions, and from Business Improvement Districts, dialogue, too. Talk up, rather than pay up, has to be the message of the day.