A Bedford Borough Council consultation on town centre alcohol licensing attracted only four responses – none from the public and none from police.
This prompted concerns at Thursday’s (11 December) Licensing Act 2003 Committee over visibility, data quality and whether the council’s evidence reflects residents’ lived experience.
A report to the committee said only four submissions were received during the six-week consultation on the borough’s updated Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA).
A CIA allows councils to manage how many new alcohol venues can open in areas that may be sensitive to extra licensing
Councillor Andrea Spice (Conservative, Wixams and Wilstead) said: “No members of the public, no licence holders [responded]?
“For a borough of over 100,000 people… I just have a massive red flag that we haven’t promoted this properly. I don’t recall this going out widely on our social media. When we do other consultations, they’re everywhere.”
John Molyneux, service director for regulation, housing and customer contact, added: “I appreciate what you are saying in terms of the low numbers, but we did fulfil the requirements for the consultation.”
Councillor Lucy Bywater (Green, Castle and Newnham) agreed that the number of responses was “disappointing”.
“But I think the biggest disappointment is that the police didn’t comment,” she said.
“There should have been input from them, and that’s a big vacuum.
“On the other hand, I’m really pleased about off-sales on the High Street being added. That’s going to give us more power, more leverage when applications are made for all-night, or until 4am, to sell alcohol off-sales.
“We don’t need that; our town doesn’t need that.
“There’ll be no benefit for local people from [allowing late-night off-sales] in terms of health, in terms of safety, in terms of people feeling safe at night,” she said.
The committee agreed to recommend that Full Council retain the existing cumulative impact zones in Bedford – Midland Road, Tavistock Street and the High Street – and add off-sales to the High Street zone.
by John Guinn
Local Democracry Reporter
