127sho_HOUSING AS A DESATURATION POLICY

Under the Licensing Act 2003 a Council has the power to designate an area within the Borough a “Cumulative Impact Zone” if it feels that the number of licensed premises is having an adverse impact on any of the Licensing Objectives (crime and disorder, noise / nuisance, public safety and harm to children). Given the high number of premises licenses already issued by LBTH, the Council will now adopt a saturation policy for Brick Lane and environs on the basis of the high levels of crime, anti social behaviour and alcohol related harm. Furthermore by increasing the housing provision in Brick Lane, this would ‘dilute’ the relative number of premises licences.

Over the past weekend, a major capital-wide crackdown by the Metropolitan Police on crimes relating to licensing issues resulted in 173 arrests and 44 warrants. Operation Condor, or ‘saturation policing’, was a co-ordinated operation across London from 8am Friday 7 December through to 8am Sunday 9 December, and was run to combat those who flout licensing rules and involved nearly 3,000 officers carrying out 800 activities. One of largest individual operations involved 175 officers, including TSG, the Met helicopter and dog units, carrying out a raid on one of east London’s most popular clubs, 93 Feet East, in Brick Lane… Given the chronic housing shortage that the LBTH Strategic Development Framework has identified, would it not make sense to dilute the saturation of licensed premises by providing more housing stock?

127sho_HOUSING AS A DESATURATION POLICY

SAY WHAT_!?

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