Businesses fear Blackpool booze ban

A Blackpool hotel owner has said plans to stop the sale of alcohol in the town after 3am will tell the UK “that people are not welcome here.”

Jonathan Morgan spoke out against a proposed Early Morning Restriction Order (EMRO) at a Police and Communities Together (Pact) meeting this week.

The EMRO would see Blackpool bars and clubs forced to stop selling alcohol at 3am, but Morgan questioned the need for the order as it is already illegal to sell booze to those who are drunk.

Morgan, who owns Blackpool’s Beverley Hotel, told the meeting: “Whether people want to drink after 3am or not, the message Blackpool is sending with this EMRO is that people are not welcome here and so they are not going to come.”

Many other licensed businesses in the area have already criticised the plans saying that it will have a huge impact on Blackpool’s night-time economy, causing pubs and clubs to close and hundreds of staff to lose their jobs.

The Blackpool Gazette reported that Club Sanuk boss Peter Bowden wrote an open letter to council leader Simon Blackburn calling for a meeting in order to discuss alternatives to the EMRO, claiming that “initiatives implemented over the last 10 years have successfully reduced crime.”

Blackpool licensing officer Sergeant Richard Hurt told the Pact meeting that he believed an EMRO was the right course of action. He said: “It is the police’s view the EMRO is relevant because of our key priorities to protect the public and prevent crime and disorder.

“We believe the EMRO will help us achieve that goal.

“Yes, there may be people who lose out as a result of this, but the police side of it is to protect visitors coming to Blackpool and to make sure crime and disorder within the town remains as low as it possibly can.”