Drink laws 'bring yob violence and murder' to the City

The City is being plagued by an explosion in violence including murder in the wake of Labour's relaxation of licensing laws, an MP warned today.

Tory MP Mark Field was set to tell the Commons that alcohol-fuelled crime and yobbish behaviour have soared in the Square Mile.

"Wounding and common assault have been identified as two distinct areas where crime is on the increase in the City and which the City (police) force believes are specifically related to the growing night time economy," he was due to say.

"More worryingly, in recent months there have been two murders in licensed premises in the Square Mile.

"The City of London has gone from being a virtual ghost town at weekends to having to deal with an increase in violence, vomit and urination as out-of-towners are encouraged into London's centre."

He stressed that the number of licensed premises in the City with public entertainment licences operating beyond 2am had leapt from 11 before Labour relaxed the licensing laws in 2005 to 64 now.

"This increase has seen as many as 10,000 people partying in the City at any one time and has transformed the area from one which has traditionally been empty in the evenings and at weekends, to a place where an increasing number of people who neither work nor live in the City arrive to go drinking and clubbing," the MP for Westminster and the Cities of London was due to say.

Clubs could attract up to 1,200 people in an evening with thousands of people spilling onto the streets in the early hours of the morning.
Many of the 8,000 residents in the economic district were becoming increasingly alarmed at disturbances.

Mr Field was due to tell MPs in a parliamentary debate that the City was now being seen as an alternative to the West End with promoters putting on large-scale events but some of these, as well as other revellers, were blighting previously quiet neighbourhoods.

"There are rising incidents of noise disturbance, street urination, vomiting and illegal parking," he was due to stress.

"The City's street cleansing service has been put under significant strain in dealing with the large amounts of cigarette litter and advertising flyers discarded on the pavements.

"At residents' meetings, constituents have spoken passionately about the diminishment in their quality of life and business rate payers have expressed deep concern about damage to property caused by the growing night time economy."

Mr Field praised the City of London Police for responding to a rising number of incidents but stressed it was underfunded to deal with the scale of drink-fuelled crime and violence, while also having to fulfil its duties in fighting terrorism and international fraud.

The City authorities are planning tougher enforcement of the licensing laws to crack down on any breaches.

Inspectors may be sent out in the evening and early morning to enforce rules on licensing, noise, smoking and parking.

Police will work new shift patterns at weekends and late at night, with officers gathering more intelligence on problem hotspots.

But the city force had ended up with a grant allocation below the level which even the Government judges necessary to deliver its policing agenda, Mr Field says, stressing it was below a minimum level of a 2.5 per cent annual increase over a three-year period.