YORK has plenty of pubs and bars, say police: it doesn’t need more.

They want City of York Council to extend a city-centre ‘cumulative impact zone’ which makes it tougher for new bars to get a licence. Back Swinegate, Fossgate and Goodramgate should all be included in the zone, police believe. That would mean new licence applications there would have to be considered in the wider context of crime and antisocial behaviour, and the number of bars already there.

The move comes after what Guildhall councillor Brian Watson describes as ‘mistakes’ over the number of new licences approved in the Back Swinegate area. Last year, he said, there were 215 crimes and 177 incidents of antisocial behaviour in the area. The implication is that many were alcohol-related.

We understand there are concerns about the number of pubs and bars in York. We accept, too, that the police have the right to express an opinion.

However, we don’t believe that extending the cumulative impact zone is the way forward.

There is no evidence of alcohol-fuelled bad behaviour in Fossgate that we’re aware of. And we are opposed in principle to blanket approaches – whether those involve new licensing applications, or 20mph speed limits.

We hope that the city council’s gambling, licensing and regulatory committee resists pressure to expand the impact zone. It is much better, we believe, for each new licensing application to be looked purely on its own merits, rather than risk a decent business being penalised for something over which it has no control.