Licensing vomit on streets

Published: 4 February 2010

• IT is extremely galling to hear licensing chief Councillor Kirsty Roberts warn Camden Town residents that it was a personal “choice” to live among its hubbub (All-Night booze complaints soar, January 28), the clear indication being that if they cannot stand the heat, they should get out of the kitchen.
This is a response frequently experienced by concerned residents trying to limit the encroachment of later and later opening hours for pubs and bars. Apart from being arrogant and dismissive, this attitude assumes that the area is full
of fly-by-nights who can up and leave on a whim if they don’t like what’s happening.
Many Camden Town residents have deep roots in the area. We have lived in Parkway for more than 40 years, brought up two children, sent them through local state schools and now our daughter and grandson are living here too. Why should we be forced to abandon our patch because of Camden’s negligent and laissez-faire approach to licensing?
Without wanting to get out the nostalgic violin, we remember a time when it was quite pleasant to walk around local streets in the evenings and at weekends. Anti-social behaviour, inasmuch as it existed, was usually confined to the occasional punch-up. There was little risk of getting vomit on your shoes or down your front door or of being pushed off the pavement by a swaying mass of legless binge drinkers.
The special policy area status gave councillors a real opportunity to refuse new licences and later hours in Camden Town but all too often they chose not to take it, persuaded by the silken tones of highly paid lawyers representing the applicants. Objecting residents are on a hiding to nothing at these licensing committees. Worse, there seems to be a general assumption held by councillors and officers that the “vibrant night-time economy” and “trendy urban cool” of Camden Town, compared rather enthusiastically by Cllr Roberts to New York’s TriBeCa, is by definition a good thing, and to be encouraged come what may. We suspect that many residents across the borough would dispute this.
The council should also carry out an urgent audit of the cost to the borough of policing Camden Town’s frenzied night-time activity and of clearing up the subsequent debris and deposits!
Colin and Josephine Jacobson
Parkway, NW1

Alcohol fuels trouble

• COUNCILLOR Kirsty Roberts maintains that it is a personal “choice” to live among Camden Town’s hubbub (January 28), so presumably people should just put up with the noise and anti-social behaviour that goes with it.
Many tenants and residents have lived there for years, long before the area became trendy, and any family on the council’s waiting list who are offered a flat on a council estate in Camden Town aren’t going to think twice about accepting it. It is up to the newcomers and those using Camden Town’s pubs and clubs, especially at night, to be more considerate of these residents and not indulge in anti-social behaviour.
One of the major causes of the noise and fights, to say nothing of the crimes, is the increasing consumption of alcohol and the extension of opening hours for pubs, bars and off-licences. Drinking beer and wine is very pleasant, especially on festive occasions, and with a meal. But excessive consumption causes anti-social behaviour, especially among the young. Advertising by the big breweries also adds to it and should be banned.
If people feel they ‘must have’ a drink at 4am, perhaps they should find out the telephone number of Alcoholics Anonymous.
P Wagland
Brecknock Road, N19

False analogy

• AS someone who lived in TriBeCa for several years, I believe Kirsty Roberts is making a completely false analogy in comparing it with Camden Town.
TriBeCa does have numerous trendy bars, restaurants and clubs but they tend to be quite pricey and consequently draw a clientele of professionals working in arts and media along with well-off financial industry workers from nearby Wall Street.
What it does not have is pubs offering cut-price drinking promotions, kebab and other fast-food joints, charity shops, piercing/ tattoo parlours, T-shirt stalls, and established community of street drinkers. The nearest London equivalent to TriBeCa is Clerkenwell. Camden Town is more analogous to the East Village, which was populated largely by aspiring artists and musicians along with junkies, at least until the late 1990s when it was gentrified.
Ellin Stein
Rona Road, NW3