Grassroots action

The Government is very fond of talking about “empowerment” and “grass-roots democracy” and it is perhaps ironical that opposition to one of its own flagship policies has provided more than one notable example of these phenomena.

The Licensing Bill – now an Act, having received the Royal Assent - brought together disparate groups and individuals throughout the country to fight what they see as a threat to the quality of life of many communities, especially those in town and city centres. The Open All Hours? Group consisted individuals, local authorities, residents associations, the Civic Trust, and the Institute of Alcohol Studies.

One of the individuals was Dr Sarah Webb, who described the situation in her city of Bath in Alert (Issue 2, 2002). Her case is the classic one of a private citizen propelled into activism and public life by a manifest injustice. She saw around her the evidence of what could well happen when the then Bill inflicted a liberalised licensing law on England and Wales.

Dr Webb moved to Bath in 1998. As one of the most attractive cities in England, with its wealth of Georgian architecture and its lively cultural life, Bath promised to be an ideal place to live. The surprise and disillusion was almost immediate. “I discovered that after midnight I was in the centre of clubland,” says Dr Webb. “I put up with it for two years until a man was nearly killed by drunks outside my front door at two-thirty one morning.” After that she began campaigning for more police on the streets, increased CCTV, and a curb on the number of licences.

Dr Webb discovered that the local Council had no policy to address the problems caused to city centre residents by the proliferation of late-night clubs and bars. She formed the view that the City was badly managed and that the prevailing attitude was to pretend that the issue did not exist in order not to damage the tourist industry. In this Bath City Council were mistaken in that quite the opposite is the case: tourists fight shy of areas where there is uncontrolled revelry and crowds of uncontrolled drunks on the streets. Sarah Webb makes the point that the only winners were estate agents as home owners tended to sell quickly and quietly once they found what life was really like in the seemingly idyllic streets of Bath.

Like many people who have become active in local politics, Dr Webb’s involvement grew from tackling specific issues, in her case one which was profoundly affecting the quality of life of the residents of the historic core of Bath. In 2001, after she had been fighting successfully against the granting of new licences for some time, the Government made the decision to deregulate Sundays. One particular Bath nightclub owner, and Liberal Democrat supporter, Phil Andrews, had his application for Sunday trading all ready to go, right down to leaflets printed advertising Sunday night jazz. Says Sarah Webb: “I fought his application and those of the other Bath nightclubs and nightpubs and none of them have managed to get a licence for Sunday.” In this case the magistrates supported the case made by local residents – that they need a night’s rest. In September, 2001, the Council retreated and adopted a policy not normally to grant a Sunday Public Entertainment Licence after 10.30 pm and that night remains a relatively quiet one in the city.

“The other big issue,” continues Dr Webb, “ has been an experiment pushed through by the Lib Dems after years of pressure from Phil Andrews. This is to allow extended PELs on Fridays and Saturdays. The Council granted twenty-four hour licences to the only three clubs which had the necessary CCTV to qualify.” All of these clubs lost money by staying open an hour or so after the bar closed for liquor sales and do not seem to have increased door takings to offset the costs involved in operating longer hours. Clearly they were looking ahead to the ending of permitted hours in the new Licensing Act. The main problem for local residents has been the spread of noise into the previously silent part of the night. “The plus,” says Dr Webb, “has been some reduction in the intensity of the 2.00am noise, but many people prefer a spate of louder noise all over at once rather than. intermittent disturbances going on longer into the night. The other interesting effect outside one club has been a reduction in police calls to the area at 2.00am. Whether this is the later opening or some other factor is not clear. Residents have been pressing for the experiment to end so that we can see what effect reverting to the old hours would have.”

Sarah Webb’s campaign against the expansion of licensing in Bath had the support of her two local councillors on the Abbey Ward of Bath. Both of these were Liberal Democrats, even though that party was the main proponent of later licensing. “Our Councillors have generally not followed the party line on this issue, but have defended Abbey Ward residents who bear the brunt of late licensing as all the venues are compressed into this area.” According to Dr Webb, “The Lib Dems are the dominant political group and are keen to keep the 12,000 or so students happy. And seem to want to allow Bath nightclubs to compete with Bristol.”

Sarah Webb’s involvement with the issues of licensing in Bath brought her naturally into contact with the Open All Hours? Group where she was impressed by the attitude of Westminster Council, which chimed with the robust approach she saw in her local Conservatives. She was also struck by the way in which Conservative Lords and MPs were “trying to get reason back into the Licensing Bill”. In the run-up to last May’s local elections, Dr Webb learned that the two sympathetic Liberal Democrat councillors for her ward were standing down and were being replaced as candidates by people in favour of later licensing – one of whom was moving from a seat in another ward to make room for Phil Andrews, the nightclub owner. She decided to volunteer to canvass for the Conservative and, in the way these things work, soon found herself recruited as one of the candidates. Not only did she win the election but she topped the poll (“And a Conservative beat Phil Andrews!” she adds gleefully).

In her election campaign, Sarah Webb tackled all sorts of issues relevant to local people, but she made it clear that she was particularly interested in getting the City’s nightlife better managed. Some landlords responded by putting up posters attacking her – a piece of free publicity any candidate would be grateful for.

Dr Webb’s success is not only an example of activism on a particular issue leading to involvement in local government but of the electorate demonstrating that its views are quite different from those it is assumed to hold. Throughout the passage of the Licensing Act the Government has taken it for granted that the entire population is eagerly awaiting the end of permitted hours. Despite all the voices raised against it and which have been ignored, it is now law and will come into operation in January, 2005. It is up to people at a local level, in councils in Bath and throughout the country, to do what they can to ameliorate its worst effects.