Police chiefs urged the government not to allow a “blanket exemption” for bars and pubs to remain open later but their pleas were turned down.
Police chiefs are furious about a decision to relax drinking laws if England progress in the World Cup.
They have urged the government not to allow a “blanket exemption” for bars and pubs to remain open later but their pleas were turned down. Now they fear more there will be more trouble in the UK than at the tournament itself. Chief Constable Mark Roberts insisted: “We’re not trying to be killjoys.”
He said ministers were ‘passing the buck’ to police forces to deal with disorder. There’s a proposal that if England get out of their group and reach the knock-out stages then all pubs will be allowed to stay open later when the games are on.
Roberts, the National Police Chiefs Council Lead for football, said: “We recognise in any tournament, there’s an increase in various demands associated with it. “We rely on the control measures to be the application of normal licensing laws. If England progress as we hope they do and the licensing is basically a blanket exemption, common sense tells us this will give us more problems.”
Asked what the Home Office response to the concerns was, Mr Roberts said they said: “Yeah, going ahead with it.”
He added: “We’ll cope. We always cope. What it’ll mean is that the forces will have to look at their plans.“But potentially have to, we’re gonna have to scale officers on later anyway, but this would extend it, so it means that officers will work potentially late shifts into the early hours.
“Knock-on effects taking officers away from local communities.
“We would have liked to do it in a more controlled manner, to allow the benefits for the licensed trade, not just pass the buck on to policing to make it work.”
He added: ‘Our concern is that premises may be in residential areas. May get saturation in one place and a challenge for us to manage it. We would have preferred normal procedures. Those places well run in sensible areas will benefit from it.
“Those premises that are well run, in sensible areas, benefit from it, but we’re not going to be swamped by this, so it will be basically more alcohol, disorder, and there’s a link to domestic abuse as well.”
“In residential areas, that you might get saturation of a large number of premises in one place, and it’s going to be a challenge for us to manage it, so we would have preferred normal procedures apply on a case by case basis. The World Cup starts next month in the United States, Mexico and Canada. England are based in Kansas City and play their group games in Dallas, Boston and New York.
