Town Hall team go on fact-finding mission in Clarkenwell after complaints over boozy noise

Published: 5 February 2010
by PETER GRUNER

REVELLERS who smoke outside pubs and clubs are creating a major nuisance for residents, according to councillors who have been on a late-night fact-finding mission.

Four Lib Dem councillors and one Labour member spent an evening visiting venues in the Clerkenwell area last Friday, following complaints by residents about rowdy drinkers. Islington Council is considering introducing a controlled drinking zone for the area.

The group, Lib Dem councillors George Allan, Stefan Kasprzyk, Tracy Ismail, Emily Fieran-Read, and Labour councillor Barry Edwards, went out with licensing officers between 9pm and 3am on one of the coldest nights of the year.

They found that by far the biggest problem was the outside smoking areas, created by venues since the ban on smoking in public places. Smokers tended to talk loudly and shout into mobile phones – one of the problems residents have been complaining about.

Former mayor Cllr Kasprzyk said: “People were smoking and drinking outside these venues and leaving litter around even on one of the coldest nights of the year. There’s nothing worse than residents being disturbed at night and then waking up to bottles and rubbish left by drinkers.”

Cllr Kasprzyk admitted the group saw little in the way of major problems associated with drinking, probably due to plummeting temperatures. 

“But there were large groups of people smoking outside venues, you could see why residents have concerns about it,” he said.

“The only way to manage this problem, short of changing the smoking laws, may be to move outside smoking places away from residential areas.”

The group also visited the controlled drinking zone around Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. “One of the things you notice within the zone is that there is much less litter,” said Cllr Kasprzyk. 

“However, it continues to be a problem outside the zone.”

They visited Screen on the Green’s new intimate sofa cinema, where the audience can have a drink while watching a film. 

“It seemed to work extremely well,” said Cllr Kasprzyk. “We visited a lot of drinking establishments which were working very well. If you have good management in place a lot of problems associated with late-night drinking go away.”

The group will be reporting to a Scrutiny committee to discuss the 2003 drinking act in March.