Camden News - by PAUL KEILTHY Published: 27 November 2008
Nightlife noise rules ‘ignored’
RULES aimed at protecting residents from being disturbed by late-night revellers are being systematically ignored by the Town Hall, neighbours of some of Camden Town’s biggest venues have claimed. Licensing guidelines introduced last year were welcomed by residents of Camden Town and Covent Garden for their inclusion of a “presumption” of refusing new applications in the most boisterous stretches of the borough’s night-time economy.
But protection from what the Town Hall calls “cumulative impact” is worthless because licensing chiefs have granted nearly every application put to them, according to Pat Thomas, of the Harmood Street, Clarence Way and Hartland Road Residents Association.
She said: “The policy says that any case being granted here must be an exception, and that any new application must add to the cumulative impact. It is recognition that the situation is already bad for residents and should not be allowed to deterioriate. But in fact it gets worse and worse and worse.”
A council press official said: “The council always tries to balance the interests of residents and local businesses when making decisions on licensing applications and deals with each application on its own merits.”