© South Wales Evening Post - 11 August 2005
A Police blunder may have led to Swansea's first dusk-til-dawn drinking licence being granted, it emerged today. Councillors unexpectedly gave a Swansea nightclub and bar the go-ahead this week to serve drinks until 6 every morning.
It has fuelled fears of an upsurge in violent crime.
The three-member council committee gave it the green light after police failed to give them specific facts and figures on drink-related city centre crime. The details had been requested but were not provided.
They simply said there were increased levels of crime in the area between midnight and 3am when the clubs were open and that extending the opening hours would stretch their resources further still.That wasn't detailed enough for councillors who had asked for them to be much more precise.
It means Barons nightclub and Bar 5 can now change their opening hours from this November. Others are likely to follow with similar applications as well.
Councillor Nick Tregoning, chairman of the licensing sub-committee which granted the licence, said today police had been asked for figures regarding alcohol-related incidents in the city centre 12 months ago.
These had not been received.He added that specific figures relating to Barons and the surrounding area had been requested on July 12 and these had not been received either.
Councillor Tregoning said: "One of the difficulties the licensing authorities are having is that despite the fact we have constantly been asking for figures about crime relating to pubs, we have had none.
"The situation that the licensing committee finds itself in is that there's a presumption in the licensing act towards granting the licence."
He said there needed to be good reason from one of the responsible authorities that shows one of the four licensing objectives - prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance, protection of children from harm - would be not be adhered to.
"Unless we're in a position where a specific case has been made, the licence will be granted," he said.
"The licensing committee is quasi-judicial. That means that even if we do not like the Government's policy, we cannot change it."
He added: "I do not want to criticise the police because it's a very difficult job they have to do and they do it on limited resources. But unless they can come to us with detailed and specific figures for crimes it's going to be very difficult for us to come up with an argument against granting a licence."
The other two councillors sitting on the committee - Sylvia Lewis of Clydach and Margaret Smith of Gower - today also both said they had been hampered by the lack of detailed evidence.
Councillor Lewis added: "If the police evidence had been stronger, it might have been different.''
Monday's decision came just 48 hours ahead of a warning by worried judges and police nationally that the new late licences across the UK will trigger a huge explosion of violence.
They say they are worried some British cities may come to resemble squalid foreign party destinations, such as the notorious Greek resort of Falaraki.
Police, asked by the Post why the detailed information had not been supplied to the council, said in a statement: "We were not able to admit the evidence at the time of the hearing."
Councillor Tregoning said it was possible to review the licence at any time if information came up to show one of the four objectives was not being adhered to.
"So if there is a problem with any premises we can look at the licence again," he added.