Councils to be able to ban all 24-hour licences

Speaking at the Labour Party conference this week, the Prime Minister has announced that he will give councils new powers to ban all 24-hour licences in their area and make pubs pay for street cleaning and policing.

Gordon Brown said that extended opening hours in some areas had not worked. He said: "No one has yet cracked the whole problem of a youth drinking culture. We thought that extended hours would make our city centres easier to police and in many areas it has. But it’s not working in some places and so we will give local authorities the power to ban 24-hour drinking throughout a community in the interests of local people."

Gordon Brown also said he would introduce new powers to force pubs and clubs to pay for street cleaning and policing."Where there is persistent trouble from binge drinking, we will give local people the right to make pubs and clubs pay for cleaning up their neighbourhood and making it safe."

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