Let's call time on this late licence

8:36pm Wednesday 27th February 2008

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IF you could have one wish for our town I doubt that the first thing on your mind would be 'let's open a nightclub until 6.30am at weekends'.

But that is what is on the cards.

The nightclub we can now do nothing about, it's going to open, but the licensing perhaps we can influence.

The new Mr Smith's - Synergy - has applied for a licence to open from 10pm to 4.30am on Sundays to Wednesdays, and 10pm to 6.30am on Thursdays to Saturdays.

Most of us over a certain age, didn't want another nightclub in the first place.

Our town already has a reputation as a booze capital and many of us would have liked to see this central venue used for something else - like a theatre.

Let's face it, most crimes are committed as a result of someone having consumed too much booze or drugs, or a combination of the two.

So allow people to drink until 6.30am and imagine what impact that is going to have.

The hospital, quite rightly, is hugely concerned.

Since the 24-hour drinking laws came in, there has been an increase in the number of people treated for alcohol-related injuries.

Children as young as 14 are needing treatment for alcohol poisoning.

And it will only get worse.

So your typical night out perhaps starts at 8.30pm.

Potentially you could then be drinking for 10 hours. That's if your liver can stand it.

I'm certainly hoping that the police will fight this extended licence.

I understand from a contact that they are very concerned and I'm hoping that the council will (please God) use some common sense and say no.

Otherwise they will only have themselves to blame.

All might go well and be peaceful inside the club, but it's when people come out of establishments like these that the trouble begins.

It's no use club and pub owners washing their hands of trouble on their doorsteps, they need to be responsible.

How are all these kids (and they will be kids) going to get home?

Pity the poor taxi driver who has got to ferry some of these legless youngsters home.

And it's bound to attract out-of-towners by the coachload.

So we'll have other towns' drunks as well as our own.

I think it is time that clubs and pubs that want to have these late licences should have to pay for the extra policing that will inevitably be needed.

Football clubs have to pay so why not nightclubs?

I wonder what our two MPs think of the 6.30am licence - I would love to know?