Cllr Tim Barnes, Westminster City Council's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Growth and Planning, joined LBC's Henry Riley this morning to address the row that followed a Guardian story claiming the council planned to ban vertical drinking in Westminster's pubs and bars.
Asked directly whether the council was trying to ban vertical drinking, Cllr Barnes was clear:
"No, of course not. That would be a silly thing to do. It would be completely against everything that we have publicly said we're setting out to do... There isn't, there never was, there never will be a plan to ban standing up in a pub in Westminster to have a drink."
He pointed out that the Guardian itself has since corrected the story and changed its headline. The paragraph at the centre of the row, about encouraging more seating and table service, comes from a 120-page licensing document and applies only to new licence applications in the Central Activity Zone (Soho, Leicester Square and Covent Garden), not to existing pubs, bars or anyone's local. Westminster rejects just 1.5% of licence applications and approves more than 98%, he said, as part of the council's first ever cabinet portfolio focused on growth.
Asked if he was a Nimby, Cllr Barnes said: "No, I live in Soho, I love Soho, I am here because I like going out," adding that he had been photographed out drinking standing up all week in the same venues he always uses.
He also turned the row back on the Mayor of London, arguing that the Metropolitan Police, not the council, are the most consistent objectors to new licence applications, a consequence, he said, of cuts to police resources under the Mayor. As an example, he cited a recent objection to a 24-hour licence for a McDonald's in Leicester Square, which the council overruled. If London had fewer cuts to night buses, a late-night Tube running Thursdays as well as Fridays and Saturdays, and properly resourced policing, he argued, people could go out later and get home safely, and "licences aren't the problem."
