3D to use polycarbs at a third of venues

3D Entertainment Group, which runs mainly late-licensed sites, has introduced polycarbonate glasses in around one third of its

90 venues.

The company now has plastic vessels at all the sites it has refurbished since the start of the year - 30 Chicago Rock Cafés, a couple of nightclubs and a new pub concept called Mortimor's.

Boss David Crabtree said it costs around £3,000 per venue to introduce plastic - the bill will be around £300,000 for the whole estate.

"It's costing a lot less in cleaning now because of the absence of broken glass. Customers seem happy; we've only had one or two minor squeals from them," he said.

Meanwhile, police and council bosses in Wiltshire are organising a pilot glass ban at local pubs and clubs. However, police licensing offi-cer Jacqui Gallimore stressed

that there was no intention to

push for a blanket glass ban.

Wiltshire Community Safety Partnership has ordered a batch of polycarbonate glasses and the group is asking venues to use them over a trial period so the impact can be monitored.

The Fizz Bar in Chippen-ham is the first to agree to a trial and polycarbonates will be used until 29 September.

Gallimore said: "There's a lot of press around about polycarbonates at the moment. The trade believes that police want to make it compulsory, but we are certainly not going to go down that route.

"The only time we would ever look to make it compulsory is at premises that have problems with glassings."

Inspector Glynn Hookings maintained that as polycarbonates last four times longer than glass, they are cheaper, as well as safer to use.