London reaches the parts that other cities don't

There's this bloke, right? And he's walking down the road. He walks into a bar, and he says "Ouch".

That's a joke. Here's another. This bloke's walking down the road, and he's in the City of Westminster. And he walks into a bar and orders a sandwich and a pint of beer and the landlord says "Sorry, mate, we're closed".

And the bloke says "Don't be daft, it's only 11 o'clock at night - this is London, I've heard you can get a drink at any time of the day or night in London." And the landlord says: "Not in Westminster you can't - in Westminster it all stops at eleven."

That is not quite true - yet. But Westminster City Council is pressing ahead with its 15-year, long-term Unitary Development Plan, which examines the future of the West End of London.

On the agenda is the question of late-night licensing. The issue is worth debating for environmental, community and business reasons. The problem is that one set of biases appears to be gaining favour over another.

Some of the residents of Westminster, notably in the area of Soho, have been complaining about noise and public disturbances late at night, and part of the council's proposed plan will order new clubs and bars to close at 1 o'clock in the morning and new restaurants prevented from serving food after 11pm.

By the time this Opinion is published, a meeting will have been held between all the parties interested in late-night licensing in Westminster, including representatives from the restaurant and property industries and the police.

Westminster City Council polices about 6,000 restaurants, and Angela Hooper, the chairman of Westminster's Licensing and Planning committee said last month (Caterer, 28 September, page 20) that she wanted to see "a balance between the partygoer and the community - a good night out and a good night's sleep". That's fair.

Why is it, then, that the restaurant community feels it is under siege?

Without being too harsh on local residents, the West End of London is famous for being a hospitality hot-spot. It has gained its reputation over many years, and anyone wishing for a quiet life would be ill-advised to take up residency in the centre of one of the most famous areas of nightlife in the world.

Create a balanced environment by all means, but Westminster City Council should remember that, in the long run, if customers can't get their beer and sandwiches when they want, they might start going somewhere else.

Approving licenses on an individual basis is fine - imposing a blanket ban may cause a slow strangulation of a thriving and important industry. Surely Westminster City Council wouldn't want that.

Here's another joke. There's this bloke, right? And he's walking through Leicester Square at midnight and it's so quiet, he goes to Paris. That's not funny, is it?

Forbes Mutch, Editor, Caterer & Hotelkeeper