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I live in Hoylake on the Wirral, population about
6000, which used to be a quiet pleasant place to live and bring up your
children. We now have six bars in the village, five of them next door to each
other and these of course have attracted a number of take-away
establishments. This is in addition to the three public houses on Market Street.
All these premises are interspersed with shops, flats and houses as it is
mainly a residential area but it now feels like clubland. The residents now
have to live with the effects of this on a daily basis (see attached letter).
I have enclosed one of the letters that I have written objecting to an
Application to Vary a License. In the list of problems that we face in the
attached letter, probably the most damaging are the wailing sirens, between
30 and 50 per month, annually about 500 and for no apparent reason. It is
most distressing.We have objected to all applications with letters and
petitions but have generally been unsuccessful. It seems that as long as the
four very broad objectives are theoretically met, anybody and his dog can get
a license. And of course these objectives are almost impossible to predict.
The act takes no account of residents quality of life or the location and
number of premises, which are to my mind crucial. Apparently only objections
from residents `in the vicinity' are considered. This rules out objections
from many residents who live in the village and suffer but who do not live
`in the vicinity' of the premises in question.
The lofty aims of this act may well have been laudable
but in practice many communities are now suffering as a result. Government
surveys and figures never relate to real life and strangely, always tend to
support the case for the government.
December
2008
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