Council plans tougher line on new outdoors in Birmingham

Nov 28 2009 by Catherine Lillington, Birmingham Mail

CITY councillors want to make Birmingham the first authority to introduce a special policy to make it harder for off licences to open under current licensing laws.

Coun Nigel Dawkins (Con, Bournville) said the city was “sleep-walking into disaster” as it felt powerless to stop more outdoors getting hold of licences.

He said the Licensing Act 2003 encourages people to sell alcohol but applicants should instead be forced to make a case for their business just as they are with the special policy which applies to Broad Street.

“We can’t really refuse them and we’re sleep-walking into disaster,” he said. “Once they’re granted a licence we can never get them back.”

In the last six months Coun Dawkins said there were 32 new applications and another 18 to vary an existing licence, which is almost always to increased selling hours.

He said: “I am shocked by the actual number of applications in just the last six months. That is why it is essential that we get to grips with this epidemic of new off licences before it is too late. It is clear to me the Licensing Act has caused this explosion in applications as it quite literally encourages every food store, every newsagent, every supermarket and every petrol station to sell alcohol.

“The inevitable result is that these premises then compete on price and drive the price down leading to further alcohol abuse and anti-social behaviour particularly amongst some of our young people.”

Councillors from the city’s licensing committee will meet as a working party in the next few weeks to decide if the idea could work. If the new policy is passed it would then go to full council to be debated.