With licensing conditions being openly flouted at pubs in York,

DAN RUTSTEIN looks at the complications landlords have to face everyday

PASSING a pint of Black Sheep to a six-year-old sitting in the beer garden of a pub is not an offence. In fact, you could quite happily join that same youngster for a drink at 3am on a boat on the River Ouse and you would still not have committed an offence.

Such are the anomalies of Britain's antiquated licence system.

A tour of York on a Friday and Saturday night reveals that certain licensing conditions are apparently not seen as a priority by many landlords.

Standing in court these landlords may well tell the magistrates that their customers will not indulge in "vertical drinking". They may say that they will not allow the music to rise above "background" level and that customers will only drink out of special vessels made from toughened glass.

They will probably give a verbal guarantee that all door-staff will be registered members of the police's strict Doorsafe scheme and that their waiters will ensure drinkers are treated to a caf-culture found previously only on the Continent.

But once such assurances have been given in court, everything looks different: and they revert to being a pub again.

To check whether or not bars are sticking to the rules, the Evening Press visited seven bars in York last Saturday night. Of these bars, only City Screen York on Coney Street was sticking strictly to its license conditions. It was relatively empty and it soon became clear why.

When attempting to buy a drink, we were told that without membership of the cinema's friends' scheme or a valid cinema ticket, we were unable to use the bar. The honesty of the female member of bar staff was admirable, but the takings no doubt suffer as a result.

An application for a full-licence takes place next month, an appeal against the magistrates' previous refusal.

City Screen needs the licence to do battle with its neighbours, who appear less keen to follow the impositions laid on them.

In Bar 38, there were a variety of badge-less doormen (doorstaff must be registered and registered doorstaff must wear badges) and the music was deafening (background music only).

The waiter who made our food also revealed that the chef had "gone home a couple of hours ago". The substantial food was served, but should a bar which is obliged to keep "substantial food" going rely on waiters to cook?

There is nothing wrong with Bar 38. There was no violence, no unnecessary disorder and no proof of underage drinking, but there was also no sign of the trademark features of a caf-bar. It was a pub, nothing more, nothing less - exactly the sort of premises that the licence restrictions were designed to prevent.

The police see licensing conditions as a half-way house towards preventing disorder. If people are sitting down and drinking in a quiet environment, they are less likely to fight. And even if they do, the glass, which fragments into tiny pieces when broken, is less of a weapon.

Breaches of licensing conditions are not criminal offences and no premises in York has ever received a warning letter about such breaches.

"But they help a licensee police his premises," said PC David Boag of the licensing office. "They are not laws but agreements with the police."

The police have pledged to control licensing conditions over the coming year. Although the Evening Press investigation revealed these short-comings by the bars, there were many other aspects of licensing law that could not be verified.

Some bars' licensing conditions in the city also place other demands on the owners of bars. Were CCTV cameras running? Were maximum occupancy rates being checked? And was the pager system, an important weapon in the fight against disorder, in use?

The licensing authorities may now wish to check.

Some could argue that it is not the licensees who are at fault, but the law. It will be interesting to see what stance magistrates take at tomorrow's Brewster session following the publication of the annual report into licensing which draws very different conclusions from the evidence gathered by the Evening Press.

Licensees who adhere to their licence conditions may well be asking: why should other landlords get away with flouting the rules?

PC Dave Boag feels it is time for a change. "Licensing reform is just around the corner," he said. "And things do need to change."

Until that change takes place, my young cousin and I are off down the Ouse for an early morning pint.

The bars we visited...

Ha Ha

Kennedy's

Kites

Varsity

Bar 38

Pitcher and Piano

City Screen

Updated: 10:34 Wednesday, February 07, 2001