Leeds City Council’s Licensing Committee have approved plans, subject to public consultation, to control the sale of alcohol in parts of Beeston due to concerns about street drinking and anti-social behaviour.
A Cumulative Impact Area (CIA) across Beeston Hill (see map) will not prevent premises from obtaining an alcohol sale license, but it does mean that they must show that they would be exemplary premises, and therefore it sets the bar significantly higher to obtain a licence.
This will allow authorities to better manage the proliferation of outlets selling alcohol in the area and will be a vital tool to help reduce issues related to alcohol abuse by limiting the number of future venues selling alcohol.
There are currently 29 licensed premises on Dewsbury Road and another 15 on Tempest Road and Beeston Road.
Cllr Mohammed Iqbal and Cllr Paul Wray (Labour, Hunslet and Riverside) welcomed the approval. Cllr Paul Wray said:
“Mohammad and I have long campaigned for this and the scope of the proposed area is beyond our original ambitions. This is very good news.
“Thank you to the Licensing Committee who have approved the principle of a CIA for not just Dewsbury Road, as we lobbied for, but also all of Beeston Hill, all of the Garnets and most of the Longroyds.”
And Cllr Ed Carlisle (Green, Hunslet and Riverside) told the Yorkshire Evening Post:
“I think a CIA is really welcome. In the last few years we have seen a real upsurge in anti-social behaviour.”
The proposed CIA will now go to public consultation and assuming there are no significant issues identified, it will then be ratified at a future Council meeting.
Areas of Beeston village and Cross Flatts were also considered as they too have a large number of licenced premises. However, they do not suffer the same levels of crime and ant-social behaviour, but they will be monitored and the CIA could be expanded in the future if necessary.
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