Bar’s bid to stay open late blocked
POLICE and council chiefs have blocked a city centre bar’s bid to open later into the night on Boxing Day.
Bosses at Bijoux wanted to keep the venue open until 2am in the early hours of December 27 to help “better manage” a bumper festive crowd, assuming there are no new Covid restrictions on the hospitality sector by then.
But councillors have now rejected the Mosley Street bar’s request after Northumbria Police warned it could add to problems with drunken crime and disorder in the city centre.
At a Newcastle City Council licensing hearing on Tuesday, Bijoux’s Dan Miller argued that extending the bar’s closing time to 2am rather than the usual 12.30am on a Sunday would allow it to “control the exit of people far better” than if hundreds of people had to be turfed out and headed to other bars and clubs.
Mr Miller insisted it was not just an attempt to cash in on the bank holiday, saying: “The extension of time is not specifically to generate extra money for the club, although there will be 15 to 20% extra, but it will help us manage the premises far better.”
He also complained that identical requests for a Temporary Events Notice (TEN) made by Bijoux in both August and October this year were met with no opposition, despite him believing they were busier nights than Boxing Day.
But Northumbria Police argued that “revellers who stay later in the nighttime economy are more likely to become a victim or perpetrator of crime” and that approving Bijoux’s request would “increase and intensify consumption of alcohol leading to higher levels of intoxication, resulting in an negative impact on crime and disorder”.
Sgt Julie Cottiss told the committee: “We must be robust when it comes to applications for TENs and whether they are exceptional and what negative impact it has on crime and disorder.
“On this occasion, I don’t believe that the application meets the criteria.”
The city council’s environmental health department had also objected on the grounds that the later closing time would increase public nuisance for city centre residents.
Issuing its decision after Tuesday’s hearing, the committee said that Bijoux “had failed to demonstrate any exceptional circumstances and further, had failed to satisfy the sub-committee that the temporary event applied for would not add to the negative cumulative impact on one or more of the licensing objectives”.