Stirling pubs and venues to be allowed later opening hours over Coronation weekend

dailyrecord.co.uk:

All pubs and bars across the Stirling area are to be allowed to open later than usual over the Coronation weekend.Stirling District Licensing Board unanimously agreed a general extension of licensed hours, for on-sale premises only, at a recent meeting.This means that both licensed premises and those with a late night licence can, if they wish, open until 2am and 3am respectively on both Friday May 5 and Sunday May 7, one hour later than usual.It also means that on Saturday May 6, the day of the King’s coronation, they can open until 3am and 4am respectively.Police, however, had raised concerns about the blanket extension approach.Sgt Malcolm O’May of Forth Valley Division’s licensing department said: “If it was a blanket policy we would be left wondering what the potential implications could be and planning for something we have limited knowledge of.“If it was individual applications with the usual information required then we can react accordingly and properly resource it to ensure public safety and keep any negative community impact to a minimum.“We have no way of telling what that weekend would bring for us and the wider impact on communities.

The town centre is resource intensive for the police on normal weekends and this just adds to the pressures, which are already significant.”Sgt O’May said a blanket extension was generally accepted over the festive season but that “at a time when policing resources are reduced year on year it’s more difficult” and there could be an additional impact.However, licensing officials said: “More staff time is required for processing the individual application approach than would be required by a general extension, as officers need to process and determine these applications.