Young people are being urged to have their say about the policies that affect the night life in Brighton and Hove.
The call came as councillors look at ways to protect live music venues and how to balance the vibrant hustle and bustle with safety, especially for women and girls.
Labour councillor David McGregor spoke out about the issues at a meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Licensing Committee yesterday (Thursday 6 February).
Councillor McGregor, who chairs the Licensing Committee, said: “Our city was once renowned for its night life and music scene and we’ve lost so many vibrant venues over the years.
“We must create a licensing policy that protects these venues we have left and allows new voices to come through with new ideas to make our night-time economy the most diverse and exciting in the entire country.
“The feedback we’ve received already has been instrumental in what we will do.”
The policy will take account of changes over the past 10 years in the dangers faced by people on a night out – and will link to the council’s strategy to tackle violence against woman and girls.
Councillor McGregor also wants better protection from discrimination and addiction for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning plus (LGBTQ+).
He said: “While the dangers of night life have changed, it doesn’t mean that the city is an unsafe one.
“We have some of the best restaurants, pubs and clubs in the entire country and our history as a fun and exciting place to visit and live has to be protected.
“I, like many others, chose to live in Brighton and I fell in love with it because I came and experienced it.
“Most of us didn’t move here for peace and quiet. We live here for that hustle and bustle of an energetic, thriving city.
“That has already come out loud and clear within that engagement process. That has to be protected. Look forward to working with the team and committee on developing the policy.”
The council is running a “pre-engagement exercise” on the Your Voice section of its website, asking what people like and don’t like about the area’s night life and what changes they want. The deadline to respond is Sunday 23 February.
A formal consultation is likely to follow in the autumn, with hopes of a new policy being ready to go before the full council at the end of this year.
Every single licence for bars for anything remotely late gets shut down with wittering nonsense from Sussex police about crime stats, so what do you expect lol. Yet there is 24 hour off licences lining north street and west street, hardly encouraging is it.
There is a difference between purchasing alcohol to take home and purchasing alcohol to consume on sight, right?
*site
Why just young people? I’m in my 50s and still like going clubbing.
Sure Rob, but you have to agree the majority of people out of an evening is predominantly younger people.
That’ll be because there are no LibDems under 30 in Kemptown or anywhere for that matter, due to your party’s introduction of tuition fees. Still you keep on dancing.
A bit ageist isn’t it? There are plenty of older people in Brighton who have opinions too about the state of the town’s nightlife. Except of course for anyone born between 1946 & 1964 who Mark Fry believes should be ignored and euthanized at his command.
Royal ironic for the cheer of the licensing committee to refer to ” the dangers of night life ” and want to consult people about it.
The main danger associated with nightlife is alcohol and drunkenness, the very licences that this man is dishing out like smarties, often while ignoring police advice.
Also it’s ageist to only consult young people on nightlife issues. I’m not a young person and one of the reasons I don’t go out more often is because of the problems, trouble and drunkenness and the fact that I don’t feel safe. It’s people like me who should be consulted , not the young people and stag and hen groups who I would say are the cause of most of the problems.
Why not incorporate it into planning as well. That way we won’t have overdevelopment next to long established music venues such as the Prince Albert?
I’m over the hilll and feel perfectly safe out. I find it’s the gammons that have an issue.
Nightlife?!
What nightlife? The days of young people having disposable income are long gone.
The coffin dodging Tory voters have created this mess, and we’re not going to dig you out.
Alcoholism on an industrial scale isn’t something we want anything to do with. You’ve made your bed, die in it.
But we don’t have any disposable income, there are no jobs, uni is a life long mortgage and even graduates can’t find work.
I don’t know what decade this bloke is living in, it’s not the 2000s anymore mate, past generations have destroyed our ability to get ahead in life, I don’t know anyone who can afford to move out of their parents house or has hundreds of quid to burn on nights out.
You will need to start with universal basic income so we actually have some money to spend, before telling us what to do with it.
This article is a joke!
“But we don’t have any disposable income “I was in central Brighton last night and the pubs, bars and clubs were heaving with loud, drunken people spilling out onto the streets. None of them looked to be have been born before 1964 and the amount of expensive junk food delivery bikes whizzing along our roads and pavements also gives a lie to this statement.
Mark seems to be some embittered snowflake Millennial who blames everybody else for his own failings to make anything of his life.
University by the way is not compulsory – it’s a lifestyle choice for many rather than work.
Legalise weed and ban alcohol. We prefer weed cafes with tasty cake and nice drinks, not vomiting up kebab at 4am.
Until you move forward and join the rest of the west, you’re going to be stuck in this boomer mindset.
You won’t do it so there is no point discussing it.
It is, repeated and consecutive, administrations that caused the death of most the live music venues in this city.what hope the youth of the city when you have generational live music venues being threatened. Local people responding with 10’s of thousands of signatures in support of said venues alongside hundreds of individual representations & said licensing Department only, resentfully, concede defeat as they realise they can’t get away with ignoring such volumes of data contradicting they’re claims. Only then to find new & unique ways to try & impose such punitive & plentiful conditions that the live music venues find themselves in the position of having won their battle but are now even more hamstrung. If it’s not that then they simply have a word with their friends in Planning to approve construction destined to put the venues existence in jeopardy in the near future.
Paris House
Prince Albert. Just two who have been fighting against a department that has for years ( and under all colours of Party) been hell bent on eradicating them from the city.
But hey. I’m sure the few hundred, I imagine at best, young people give a response then the changes will be made overnight. 20,30,40,000 signatures for a venues survival was ignored as much as possible.