News / Nighttime Economy
Rules limiting new bars and restaurants in city centre to be kept
Restrictions on opening new bars and restaurants in the city centre will be kept but reviewed following criticism.
Residents and the police raised concerns that more venues opening up would lead to an increase in rowdy drunken revellers and anti-social behaviour.
Anybody wishing to open a licensed premises has to apply to Bristol City Council for permission to do so. A wide area covering the city centre faces extra rules, due to the high level of crime and disorder there late at night, and licensing applications are presumed to be refused.
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Council officers had proposed scrapping the cumulative impact area, but councillors on the licensing committee voted to keep the policy in place, during a public meeting on Thursday. The public will soon be consulted on potential changes to the rules.
Local licensing lawyers had raised concerns the rules put off new venues from opening up. But some residents living in the city fear that more new venues opening up would inevitably lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour late at night, like noise, litter and public urination.
Bernice Gollop, a Harbourside resident, said: “There have been a lot of late-night drinking establishments springing up between We the Curious and our block of flats.
Police have warned that more venues and people out late at night would increase their workload – photo: Martin Booth
“The thought that any form of control is being removed, by taking away the CIA, is really upsetting to residents who live there. People have chosen to live in the city centre because they work there or they go to school, and they just want to preserve some sort of quality of life and good sleeping patterns.”
Janet Wilson, a Queen Square resident, added: “We’ve had terrible problems late at night with drinking carousers thinking that the square is unoccupied and keeping us awake.
“From 2010 to 2019 I kept a log and informed the council and the police of all the activity. But in the end we’ve had to deal with incidents on our doorstep ourselves, putting ourselves in danger.
“The idea of getting rid of the CIA — which at the moment gives some monitoring and balance — fills us with horror. We’ve had bars open up behind us, and then suddenly they’ve got loud karaoke. We’re not double-glazed because we live in a listed building, and now we have a child under two.”
New venues can still open up inside the cumulative impact area, and the policy is not a blanket ban. For example, massive gigs will be put on in Queen Square this summer, and a ‘beer bike’ has recently been spotted around the city centre, both despite the policy.
Instead, the rules mean that a new licensing application is presumed to be refused, unless applicants prove they won’t add to the combined impact of many venues already operating nearby after 11pm, and associated problems with anti-social behaviour and rowdy drunken revellers. More complex applications are usually decided by councillors on a licensing hearing.
If the council does scrap the policy in future, these councillors would still be able to refuse applications. The test is whether venues will follow the four licensing objectives: preventing crime and disorder, public safety, preventing public nuisance, and protecting children from harm.
Local businesses carry out a lot of joint work to keep the public safe, according to Carly Heath, the council’s nighttime economy adviser.
This includes campaigns against drink spiking, and public awareness posters showing the risks of falling into the harbour and drowning. She told the committee that this work would continue, even if they scrapped the cumulative impact area.
Few noise complaints are made to the council’s neighbourhood enforcement team about city centre venues late at night. Last year there were 1,450 noise complaints across Bristol, but only 12 of these related to specific licensed premises in the cumulative impact area after 11pm.
However, this doesn’t include when rowdy drunk people are making noise walking down a street, next to some flats for example, who can’t be linked to a specific bar. Also, some residents said they had “grown tired” of reporting noise complaints and seeing little action follow.
The neighbourhood enforcement team said there was not enough evidence to justify keeping the policy. But licensing officers from Avon and Somerset Police urged the committee to keep the rules in place, as they said more venues and people out late at night would increase their workload.
The licensing committee voted to keep the policy in place and review potential changes, with seven in favour and four against. Greens and Tory councillors voted to keep it, while Labour and the one Liberal Democrat voted against, arguing that the policy should be scrapped.
Alex Seabrook is a local democracy reporter for Bristol
Main photo: Martin Booth
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