April 2008

Noctis

Noctis COMMENT

ADZs

Operational, Noctis comment, April 2008, COMMENTS

At the end of January I was invited to the Home Office to discuss Alcohol Disorder Zones with officials. It was clear that the policy had been found wanting in many of the ways Noctis (and formerly BEDA) had been suggesting since this ludicrous policy was first mooted and we were being asked for our contribution to try to put it right. The problem, as we calmly suggested, was that there are actually no redeeming features to this policy, so the only reasonable way to improve it is to shelve it and think again.

Fast forward six weeks to the middle of March and the same official made contact again to say (unsurprisingly) there are still problems with the ADZ regulations and can we (once again) suggest a way to fix it. To add insult to injury, the official gave us four days to make it right! But the truth is that nothing will fix this policy.

In the Government’s eyes, ADZs were only ever proposed as a short-term measure. This means, in effect, that after an ADZ period is completed, a more long-lasting solution needs to be implemented. We have argued that it makes little or no sense to execute a measure that will impose major financial and logistical burdens on operators, regardless of whether they are causing the problems or not.
ADZs exclude supermarkets and place a greater burden on late opening, large capacity venues over smaller venues, regardless of what other operational measures are in place. This leaves late night operators with the Kafkaesque scenario of having to pay massively over and above the rate of the small community pub, even though the late night premises is judged by all concerned as the best licensed premises in the area.

This also means venues that are well run suddenly lose all incentive to improve standards. Similarly all of the sensible, non-problematic customers will suddenly vanish into ether, as they (quite rightly) have concerns about socialising in an Alcohol Disorder Zone. It means that if there were problems before, the combination of riot vans and thoroughly undesirable customers who are actively looking for disorder will become the norm for that area. How this will do anything other than causes additional problems for operators is anyone’s guess.

What is clear is that those people who labelled 2007 an annus horribilis are now fully aware that this was not just a temporary blip. I have a very limited understanding of international finance, but I do understand that if consumer confidence is dented, then this has a profound effect on buying decisions. This means in practice that the populace get less carefree about spending and all those non-essentials are rapidly re-evaluated.

Obviously this means that businesses that are already hard pressed are likely to go through an even more difficult cycle. It will mean too that customers will feel an even greater impetus to start their big night out by consuming a large quantity of cheap supermarket alcohol before they leave the house. In turn this will potentially place further additional burdens on door staff and management to refuse greater numbers of inebriated customers entry to the venue.

Against this increasingly bleak backdrop, there are additional burdens that come into force imminently for operators. Firstly from 6 April, (as I mentioned in February’s column) new noise legislation comes into force, which means that all operators need to have done a noise risk assessment.

Secondly (also on 6 April) new laws regarding corporate manslaughter come into force. If you haven’t already looked into this, it is crucial that all operators ensure their health and safety policies are fit for purpose: i.e. are up-to-date, effective and have been communicated to all staff, including contractors. Whereas the old legislation made corporate manslaughter judgments very difficult to prove in practice, the new legislation will make the process much simpler. Incidentally, the new fine that can be imposed is up to 10% of annual turnover.

Throughout the difficult times to come, Noctis will continue to work hard to ensure that the late night sector is strongly represented. If you are experiencing difficulties, we want to hear from you.

Words: Paul Smith (NOCTIS)

From: April 2008

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