Nantwich pubs, clubs and takeaways could face a “levy” for opening after midnight to help clean-up and police the town’s streets.
The plans have been mooted as part of Cheshire East Council’s consultation on its licensing policy.
And the idea of a levy has been broadly welcomed by Nantwich councillors in a bid to tidy up after late night opening in areas of the town like Welsh Row (pictured).
Nantwich Independent Cllr Arthur Moran said: “If a levy was paid, 70% of this would go to the police and 30% to the council to ensure the town is cleaned up.
“It is a broad brush approach rather than targeting those outlets which.
“But I would like to support this late night levy on the abundance of takeaways and licensed premises which now open into the early hours in Nantwich.
“If we left Nantwich for a few days without streets being cleaned, the residents would see what a tip this town would be.
“These takeaway owners should be out there cleaning up in front of their premises.”
Cllr David Marren added: “Licensed premises are also responsible. Bottles and glasses find their way outside and are then smashed in the streets or left in people’s doorways.”
But Louise Bastow, director of The Cat and Firenze on Welsh Row, hit out at the plan.
“If they want to impose a levy I’d like them to reduce the extortionate business rates we pay, which are calculated taking into account the terms of our licence, opening hours, size of the building, location and so on.
“On the days we’re open beyond midnight, we also employ door staff to minimize our pull on the police.
“And we employ cleaning and maintenance staff to take care of our building and the public area surrounding the building.
“It’s very important to us and other local businesses that Welsh Row is kept safe and clean but this is already in hand.
“So a night-time levy seems unnecessary, and just another means of trying to draw funds from the licensing trade.”
Cllr Jones, leader of Cheshire East Council, said they were not ruling out the idea of a levy.
I have personally picked up over 60 bags of litter from Nantwich streets since April, especially the gas works car park at the rear of Welsh Row. This is a matter of education for takeaway eaters who are too drunk to notice how stupid their actions are when littering the streets in the early hours. I feel for these council litter pickers, as I have been around town at 6am to see Welsh Row look like a festival site. In spite of volunteers picking litter also in the town, the amount of rubbish thrown in the streets has not gone down at all!!
My solution would be to meet every takeaway/pub/club owner and ask them for suggestions on how this is to be tackled, as this problem is nationwide and costs billions in clear up costs So the simple answer is “THROWING MORE MONEY AT IT WILL NOT HELP!!”
I work in a local pub and where we do regularly open past 12 our customers as a rule live very close to the pub and do not contribute to the mess left by the younger customers of busier pubs. My place of work is a family business and struggles already with the amount of money squeezed out by breweries and the council. In a struggling industry these kinds of charges are disgusting. We have already seen so many Nantwich pubs close it would be a terrible shame to lose more due to greedy police and council bosses.
More personally if this levy were to be approved and landlords can’t afford it many bar staff myself included would likely be looking for work in a town with no bar work available. Why should pubs like the Rife, the Black Lion, The vine, The railway, Cronky farms and many other pubs who do not contribute to the mess be made to pay for the reckless trading of places who ply their customers with cheap shots and keep them drinking till 3? A broad brush would not help as these businesses won’t care that every landlord in town is paying for their cleanup bill and so the mess would continue. Charge the pubs who contribute to the problem or better still seeing as its the councils JOB to keep the streets clean and the polices JOB to keep order they could stop whining about it and do their JOB so I can do mine. If this happens I’ll probably be out of a job in 6 months.