From my reading of the press the new 24hour licensing laws have some worrying aspects.

1 Any person objecting to an application must live or have property within 200 metres of the applicant

2 An objection is not valid 28 days after the application has been lodged and advertised in the prescribed manner.

3 The applicant must post a notice of their application on their premises, on a lamp post near their premises and in the local paper, however a regional paper is deemed as local.

The police do under the new regulations do have increased powers, but do they have the will or man power to carry these out?

As the granting of the licence has been taken away from the courts and given to the Local Authority, it will be increasingly important to pressure elected representatives, whatever their party.

As to date the major supermarkets have stated that they will apply for permission to sell alcohol 24 hours a day in England and Wales in over 1000 stores.

***In Glasgow there is a city wide ban on the consumption of alcohol on the streets and in the parks, This the police enforce rigorously. I believe we should urge our council to widen the alcohol ban areas as the present regulations only drive the problem from the town centres, that have at least a thin police presence, to areas t hardly have any. ***

Town: ajames46@fsmail.net