Police warning on new drink laws

Local authorities will enforce the changes to licensing laws

Senior police officers have raised serious concerns about the government's plan to allow 24-hour drinking.

Pubs and clubs will be permitted to stay open all night under a revamp of licensing laws to take place next year.

The Association of Chief Police Officers says the changes could leave their forces overstretched.

ACPO president Chris Fox said better planning was needed from local authorities on how to enforce the laws when they take effect.

We can't just drift into this, otherwise we are going to cause ourselves a long-term problem Chris Fox ACPO president

Mr Fox told the BBC's Today programme: "The Licensing Act per se is not the problem. The problem is the conduct of premises and the planning process that goes on now.

"Both the planning, the licensing and then in fact the conduct of big drinking houses don't seem to be improving. What we are saying is that if all we are going to do is to extend the time they are open, this will extend the problem.

"We see areas that are planning for a 24-hour economy but not bothering to particularly put in transport or toilet systems."

'Long-term problem'

He said ACPO supported the overhaul of the Licensing Act, but it was important to ensure the changes were properly enforced.

"We are not yet convinced that the local authorities are going to change their planning and enforcement regime.

We need to take specific measures against those types of people and the premises that they are using Tony Blair

"We can't just drift into this, otherwise we are going to cause ourselves a long-term problem."

He denied his comments were a thinly-veiled attempt to secure greater funding for police forces.

But he warned: "The problem we do have is that if lengthening the hours without changing the conduct of premises happens, then officers are going to be drawn into towns later and later, and of course the world outside goes on."

The prime minister said police and councils would shut down any clubs and pubs where there were regular problems with "thugs".

Tony Blair told his monthly news conference: "We need to take specific measures against those types of people and the premises that they are using.

"The ordinary law-abiding citizen who wants to have a drink after the cinema or theatre has closed should not be deprived of that ability because you have got some hooligan or thug who goes around beating people up after drinking."

Surprise

A spokeswoman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport told BBC News Online only 2% of bars were expected to apply for 24-hour licences.

She said most pubs and clubs would merely push back their closing times by a couple of hours on weekends, which would lessen the potential problem of large numbers of patrons leaving premises at the same time.

The Local Government Association said Mr Fox's comments came as a surprise, given that the LGA and ACPO were working together on how the new system would be implemented.

A British Hospitality Association spokesman said the industry and local authorities had been forced to wait "an awfully long time" for the government to provide draft guidelines on the laws and how they should be enforced.