Police object to Brighton bars' plans to open until 6am (From The Argus)

Police object to Brighton bars' plans to open until 6am

12:30pm Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in News

Bars in Brighton are pushing to stay open until as early as 6am over the Halloween weekend.

Police fear two city centre venues could be flooded by revellers looking to continue their nights until the early hours of the morning.

Bar Synergy in Middle Street and Vavavoom in the Old Steine want to open until 6am and 5.30am on Saturday, October 27.

The Middle Street venue, which caters for up to 110 drinkers at a time, also hopes to stay open until 6am on Sunday.

Both venues have applied to Brighton and Hove City Council for temporary event licences.

But Brighton’s top policeman, Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett, has written to both licensing committees, urging that they refuse to let the bars stay open later.

The venues are located in Brighton’s drinking heartland – the Cumulative Impact Area (CIA) – where there is a high number of licensed premises and restrictions on later openings.

In a report to the council, released ahead of a meeting, Ch Supt Bartlett said if only a few bars were open past 4am, as proposed, there was a risk of a “flood of persons wishing to continue on with their night going on to this venue with the potential for crime and disorder due to this influx.”

Objecting to both bars’ appeals to stay open later than usual, he said allowing them to stay open later would “undermine the licensing objectives of prevention of crime and disorder”.

A decision will be made on both bars today.