A licensing application was submitted before Christmas by new owners to keep open Scandals night club (formerly Southern Pride) until 5am, Monday to Saturday.

This would have meant continued early morning disturbance to local residents.

Andrew appeared before the Committee and argued that these licensing hours were too late and that the club should close earlier. As a result, the club will now close at 1am Monday to Thursday and 3am Friday and Saturday.

In our view, the weekday times especially are still too late, but the decision is at least a substantial improvement when compared with the original application.

Nowadays, very late-night drinking is more readily available because of the 2003 Licensing Act, introduced ironically by this area’s New Labour MP with a fanfare in the 2001 election campaign when they sent a text message to young voters:

“cdnt give a XXXX 4 lst ordrs? Vote labour on thrsdy 4 xtra time.”

The national Government has implied that it will correct her mistakes but has yet to do so. Meanwhile, we will continue to fight against late-night drinking in residential areas such as this.