Mansfield Council latest to 'find' against a Late Night Levy

It was reported over the weekend that Mansfield District Council had decided that “the introduction of a Late Night Levy in Mansfield is not a viable option at this point”.

The councillor responsible for the final decision is reported on the council website as saying:

"We have given careful consideration to the Late Night Levy and looked carefully at how a charge of this nature would impact on our District. During our review, a number of issues were raised. Firstly, the levy would have to be applied District wide and would therefore impact on many licensed premises which do not benefit from, or require the presence of the police after midnight. Secondly, the money paid by licensed premises would not necessarily be spent by the police either in the Mansfield District or on the late night economy. We also recognised the financial impact that the levy would have in this already difficult financial climate.  Mansfield has predominantly well run licensed premises and therefore it would be unjust to burden all of the licensed premises with the levy.”

It would be more appropriate to take a more targeted approach to deal with either individual, or small groups of licensed premises which are causing a problem in relation to alcohol related crime and disorder."