Statement of Licensing Policy (2008) WCC - Westminster City Council

2.4 Stress Areas2.4.1 The council acting as Licensing Authority is applying the special policies relating tocumulative impact as outlined in revised Guidance (paragraphs 13.24-13.38) to threelimited areas in Westminster. These amount to less than 6% of the total area of theCity of Westminster although they contain 36% of the licensed premises within the cityincluding 64% of the night clubs, 35% of the pubs and pub restaurants and 49% of therestaurants. These areas have been identifi ed as under stress because the cumulativeeffect of the concentration of late night and drink led premises and/or night cafés hasled to serious problems of disorder and/or public nuisance affecting residents, visitorsand other businesses. The evidence for this is set out in Appendices 12 and 13.Stress areas• The West End Stress Area• The Edgware Road Stress Area• The Queensway/Bayswater Stress AreaSee Appendix 15 for maps of the boundaries of these areas.2.4.2 In the Stress Areas, which have been identifi ed as areas where special policies oncumulative impact apply, the Licensing Authority has policies which indicate refusalof applications for pubs and bars, take-away hot food and drink and the provisionfor facilities for music and dancing other than applications to vary hours within thecore hours under Policy HRS 1. This is a less restrictive approach than is suggestedin revised Guidance (paragraph 13.27) which suggests that licensing authorities canadopt a policy of refusing all new licences subject to relevant representations beingmade. However, this effectively is a policy of fi xed terminal hours for these limitedtypes of premises within the Stress Areas. A policy of fi xed terminal hours is contraryto revised Guidance (paragraph 13.37). However, the Licensing Authority considersthat it is better to grant the core hours to premises in the Stress Areas rather thanhave a policy to refuse all applications or to make exceptions in virtually every case.The Licensing Authority is generally prepared to grant reasonable limited longer hoursby way of the core hours for all premises across the city. The problems in the StressAreas are generally later at night than the core hours. Without the provision to grantapplications to vary hours within the core hours in the Stress Areas customers in theStress Areas would leave the Stress Areas around 23:00 in search of the additionalhours available outside them. There are a very large number of licensed premisesin the West End Stress Area and the adverse effects on the licensing objectives42