Speaking to residents in Primrose Hill, Camden Town Holborn and Bloomsbury about Camden council's new night time strategy.
Residents are not happy. The view of the residents’ groups is that the changes proposed in Camden’s draft Statement of Licensing Policy would just allow venues to earn more money from the longer hours for sales of alcohol — adding to crime, disorder and noise nuisance.
Like Westminster, Camden is in the process of promoting a new evening and night-time strategy, on the basis that the existing licensing policy is “not flexible enough.”
However Camden’s idea of increased flexibility seems to have been mainly concentrated on extending liquor licence times and has come somewhat unstuck as a result. Fitzrovia News reported that Camden Council was forced to halt proposals for major changes to its Statement of Licensing Policy last month after receiving objections from the police, a housing association, and residents’ groups across the borough.
The updated policy would have extended the core hours (i.e. the default basis hours an establishment is permitted to serve alcohol) by between 30 mins and 2 hours (see table above). It was feared this would have led to longer opening hours generally and made it easier to get new licences in areas that are already saturated with them. The report on this policy was due to get approval to go out to consultation in February, but due to the weight of objections, it has been withdrawn for further consideration.
In letters published in the Camden New Journal, a coalition of resident groups said the policy change revealed “conflicts of interest of councillors who have built their political identities around promoting Camden’s night-time economy”.
“Camden councillors are increasingly favouring commercial interests and later hours for alcohol consumption at the expense of the health and well-being of its resident population. This new licensing policy shows contempt for the residents of Camden and the communities we have built here.”
