Plans to tackle drink-related violence have been dismissed as ‘a gimmick' by the LGA. Council leaders said the introduction of 24-hour drink licences had been a catastrophic mistake which had created no-go areas and fuelled drink-related violence. Government proposals to create a new yellow and red card warning system for alcohol licencees plus higher fines for people caught drinking in public were condemned by the LGA. The LGA also challenged Home Office figures showing a 1% drop in crime as ‘statistically insignificant'. A spokesman said: ‘These gimmicks go nowhere near to giving councils back the one tool they had for 80 years to protect their communities against drunken violence.' Council leaders will now lobby for strict new rules governing the marketing alcohol and for an end to the huge discounts on alcohol sales. They will also call on the Government to raise the fees they can charge for a licence application. Currently there are not enough resources to inform residents when a pub or nightclub applies to change its hours or re-applies after being stripped of a licence. LGA leader Sir Simon Milton said: ‘The real problem about alcohol violence going later into the night is not simply to do with the clock. ‘First of all if you are a resident who's disturbed at night and it's 3am in the morning, your chances of getting back to sleep after that are much less. But, also, policing resources are being stretched further into the night. ‘When we moved to the new act the nightclubs who used to pay thousands of pounds for their fees had them cut dramatically. So the biggest premises causing the most trouble have seen their fees reduced.'
