Nottingham late-night levy could be introduced without proper consideraton of city's nightlife

Purple Flag: Nottingham is one of several towns and cities recognised for its well-managed city centre at night

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the political influence locally on the late-night economy of city centres. Local authorities have a crucial role to play; they promote and invest, and exercise controls through planning and planning policy, traffic management, the availability and price of parking and, of course, their licensing policy.

Sometimes there appears to be a contradictory approach where different views are hard to reconcile; for example, a city may try to promote the vibrancy of its nightlife, but at the same time have a licensing policy that accepts there are serious drink-related crime and public nuisance problems in the city.

Is that city a good or risky night out? Is it a bit of both, or is it, in fact, no different to the way it has been for several generations — in other words, most of the people are having fun and some will be boisterous, but there are a few idiots whose behaviour is adversely affected by consuming too much alcohol (now more of it probably consumed at home). Does anyone really know or are local politicians acting on presumption?

I have listed below some facts and comments relating to one UK city in particular:

“The city centre suffers from significant levels of crime, disorder and nuisance,” city-centre inspector, December 2011.
“The city centre has Purple Flag status, an acknowledgement that the city is a safe place to be at night following independent objective assessment,” local business improvement district (BID) report.
The city has a long-established and active pubwatch, the UK’s only specialist leisure BID, taxi marshals and street ambassadors.
The city has significantly fewer licensed premises that are open to trade than in 2005.
It has not granted a new premises licence for a late-night bar/entertainment venue since 2005, when it obtained control of licensing.
Licensees in the city are finding trading difficult and comment that fewer people are coming into the city centre on Friday and Saturday nights than they used to.
Crime and incidents in the city are down significantly since 2005 (but there has been a slight rise in incidents from 2010 to 2011).
The level of anti-social behaviour is up from 2008.
The local authority has a cumulative impact policy against the grant of new licences in the city and variations that will add to that impact — this has been extended to include off-licences and, in 2011, to a larger area in the city centre.
The chairman of the county police authority will ask the local authority to introduce a late-night levy because, “why should all council tax payers pay for the additional clean up and policing costs generated by licensed premises that stay open beyond midnight?”
The chairman of the police authority is also the leader of the city council, which will decide on whether the levy should be introduced.

The city in question is my own city, Nottingham. It may be that a number of these points also apply to other cities in England and Wales.
My concern is that there has not been a proper study of the situation in Nottingham late at night, or a debate leading to a decision as to what is the best way forward. The cumulative impact policy has been in place since 2005 and, generally, crime and disorder is down. Are the two related or are there also significant economic factors at play? Is the levy another nail in the coffin of the city’s late-night economy?

Is it fair to promote Nottingham as safe (Purple Flag status supported by the police), to seek the local licence holders to invest in a BID, but at the same time to indicate that extra policing is needed and the late-night levy must be introduced from midnight, the earliest available time?

The late-night levy allows exemptions at the discretion of the local authority. Will Nottingham exercise its discretion in relation to the BID? Surely there is a conflict of interest here because if it exempts licence holders in the city centre who are in the BID then it will receive less income, so will the financial burden then fall on licensed premises outside the city centre?

Will the city council consider the issues properly? Do the city councillors know what the situation is ‘on the ground’, that many bars have been closed in the past seven years and a number of licensed premises are struggling because fewer people are going into Nottingham late at night? Will the operators be invited to give their views?

There are so many complex issues and unanswered questions here.

My fear is that the levy will be introduced without proper consideration of the facts that relate to the city centre and without an holistic policy that deals both with reducing crime and disorder and promoting the late-night economy. The two are not incompatible.