GMP rejects

4am licence

accusations

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has denied claims it is making blanket oppositions to 4am licence bids in the city.

Last week, the Manchester Pub and Club Network wrote a strongly-worded letter to the Home Office and the Prime Minister attacking police for objecting to all applications by pubs and clubs to stay open past 4am.

In the letter, Network spokesman Phil Burke said a 4am cut-off point 'seems to make a mockery of the principle that staggered closing would reduce disorder.

Burke said: 'We would urge GMP to reconsider its counter-productive, unilateral stance against extended licences within the city centre and allow these applications to be heard on their own merit instead of their present agenda for a blanket ban across the city.

Burke added that the police were also going to appeal against the council's decision to grant one venue, Cruz 101 nightclub, an 8am licence.

In response, Jan Brown, from GMP's City Safe Unit, stressed that 'each application for re-vised operating times is assessed on its own merits.

She said applications for 4am openings were 'currently being looked into.

However, Brown said each applicant must consider 'the wider picture.

'Do we want, for example, particular premises to be closing at a time when members of the public are arriving at their place of work, or when children may be travelling through the area to school?

She also said that they had to 'consider police resources.

'Seventy per cent of serious crime is alcohol-related and we have a duty to reduce such incidents, Brown added.