From Alcohol to Water

A useful meeting today with colleagues to plan next year’s “Responsible Host Scheme” in the Borough. This is an scheme which LB Ealing pioneered six years ago – and which other Councils and the Government are now copying – which encourages better management of licensed premises. Much credit for this is due to my mate Cllr John Delaney (Acton Central ward), although the real strength of the Scheme has been a genuine partnership between Councillors, Council officers, the police, residents groups, and other key players.

Phil (left) and John Delaney (right) launching
the 2004 Responsible Host Scheme

Much of my time over the last year has been taken up with Licensing (process as well as consumption). The Government have transferred responsibility for alcohol licensing from magistrates to local councillors amidst a range of other changes – of which the headline is the option for extended hours for licensed premises. There has been much lurid nonsense in the Daily Mail and their ilk about “24-hour drinking” – for which virtually no pub in the country is applying – and indeed in my view much of the current problem with alcohol in town centres can be laid at historic poor decision-making by unaccountable magistrates rather than locally elected Councillors. That said, the civil servants at the relevant Department (DCMS) have made a pigs ear out of a good idea, with too much national prescription and too little local flexibility.

I chaired the Committee that agreed LB Ealing’s licensing policy last year, and also led some of the lobbying of Government on behalf of London Boroughs. Against the opposition of much of the alcohol industry, the policy we agreed included a pioneering “cumulative impact” special policy zone for the Haven Green and Ealing Green areas in central Ealing. This means that there is a general presumption against any new or extended licences in this area, unless it can be shown that they would not worsen the problems already being experienced locally with drinking and entertainment.

My next few months will also be dominated by Licensing. I and my colleague Cllr Laurence Evans (Acton Central ward) will be the core of the team of Councillors considering applications for new and changed licenses in the Ealing area. This is likely to be the area of the Borough with the busiest and most hotly contested agenda of licensing issues. The first hearing is now set for 4th October, when we’ll consider proposals for extended hours at the O’Neills and Edwards pubs in Ealing Broadway. Summaries of licensing applications can be seen on the LB Ealing website at http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/licensing/current+applications.asp


After the Responsible Host Scheme meeting, I went on to the first meeting of the Water Scrutiny Panel. This was a scrutiny exercise that I suggested (so I could hardly refuse to be a member), particularly following a series of floods and burst mains in Acton, and concern across London about Thames Water’s policy of reducing water pressure in higher-rise blocks of flats. We had a useful framing discussion, but the meat of the work will come at future meetings, and particularly at a public hearing we will hold in Acton later in the Autumn - to be chaired by my ward colleague Cllr Paul Woodgate.