ATCM Chief Executive's Blog

This section offers news and views about Town Centre related issues.

If you want to comment on any of these articles, you can email me with specific points at martin.blackwell@atcm.org or you can post thoughts and questions in the on-line Discussion Forum, though that option is only open to ATCM members.

'Best Bar None better than Licensing Act?' - Martin Blackwell
Monday 05 July 2010

I was invited to the Best Bar None reception at the House of Lords last week by the British Institute of Innkeeping. Best Bar None (BBN) has done far more to reduce violence, encourage partnership and increase the quality of the late night economy than the Licensing Act, according to BBN Chairman, Lord Redesdale. He went on to say that the success of the scheme in making the night time environment safer and therefore increasing footfall was beyond doubt.

Star of the evening was ATCM Member Carol Feenan, TCM in Durham, whose success with BBN was celebrated. A huge effort has paid off in the town with a 52% drop in crime, and a 28% increase in trade at some venues. BBN is complimentary to Purple Flag. The former sees pubs and clubs accredited for the steps they take to be responsible, across a range of areas including search policies and age-check procedures, while PF accredits the environment in which they operate (transport, safety, mix etc).

Lord Redesdale said, “Politicians have an urge to introduce regulation on the drinks industry but we have an opportunity to stop that through Best Bar None and it is cheap,” he said at a Parliamentary reception to reward the national winners. “I’m trying to tell Government that we don’t need regulation. Best Bar None has done far more than all the regulation and red tape produced by the Licensing Act.” He added that BBN had a real chance of growing from its current size of 100 schemes nationwide because of the looming cutbacks. “The real issue is there will be cut backs but Best Bar None reduces the cost to the economy and increases the quality of the night time economy,” he said. Tory MP James Brokenshire, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Crime Reduction at the Home Office, said the Home Office said how pleased he was with the strong partnership between BBN and the Home Office. He said the Government would rebalance the Licensing Act and that there would be “further action on those who are not here tonight and do not act responsibly” but also stressed there would also be a late night levy on all premises. He said it was clear the public don’t want scenes of excess and anti-social behavior but they also don’t want to see police taken away from dealing with other crime such as burglary. This sounds to me like the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, which has the potential to add dramatically to licensees cost as it will give the local authority powers to levy a charge. We, at the ATCM, are concerned that this has not only the power to undermine BIDs focused around the Late Night economy, but also raises the specter of double charging.

We will be reviewing this with government, BIDs and the industry over the next few months. Discussing this over a glass of orange juice (honest!) with Paul Smith, Chief Executive at NOCTIS, a membership organisation for late night venues, we agreed to meet urgently to agree a policy with which to lobby government. Bruce Ray, director of external affairs at BBN sponsor Bacardi Brown-Forman, warned the industry remained under attack from the media, medical profession and internal squabbling. He called for unity to find the solution to excessive drinking. “The public don’t see it as the wine industry or the convenience stores,” he said. “Whether it is cheap promotions, serving drunks or serving under-18s. It affects us all. It damages the whole industry.” He thinks that the industry had two choices — be like the tobacco industry or the car industry.

“When a car is caught speeding, it is the individual that gets the penalty not the car manufacturer,” he said. “The same should be true of our industry if we make the environment safe and responsible.” I took the opportunity to speak to Mark Baird, CSR Manager, Diageo, who are Purple Flag sponsors. We are already thinking about the venue for the autumn PF Awards. I can’t tell you yet where we are thinking of but I can tell you have a record number of entries in this round!