A hotel manager has blamed the planning system for allowing a city’s night time economy to run out of control.

Justin Manning, general manager at Queens Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton, said that the licensing system is fundamentally flawed. Mr Manning is one of a panel of speakers who will take part in the Big Debate organised by the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce in association with The Argus.

He said that the city needs to have diverse venues but licensing decisions have been left up to people who have never worked in a commercial environment who grant licences willy-nilly. He said they do not think about the impact of their decisions.

Mr Manning will set out his views at the Big Debate later this month.

He said: “The venues are open to three or four in the morning and you have around 1,000 drunken people milling around. It is not just a matter of too many pubs and clubs it is also a question of off-licences. There are two all-night off-licences within 10 metres of each other in East Street. This gives people an incentive to come into the Lanes area when they leave the clubs to load up with more booze.”

A spokesperson for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “The Cumulative Impact Zone allows councillors to take into account the impact of other licensed premises in the area when considering an application for a new licence or variations to existing ones. The policy says that new licenses will not be issued unless there are exceptional grounds for doing so.”

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