New boy wants controversial curfew reviewed
THE youngest Inverness councillor is supporting efforts to overturn the city’s controversial midnight club curfew.
Twenty-six-year-old SNP representative Richard Laird thinks the ruling, which stops customers entering late-night venues after midnight, should be looked at again.
Attempts to have the sanction thrown out have failed after police insisted the policy protects the public by ensuring people are corralled within a controlled environment and say it also makes it easier to schedule officers’ meal breaks.
It means revellers are limited to a handful of venues for late-night drinking, despite some licensed traders fighting to get the restriction dropped. “The curfew is a recurring subject when I speak to my peers and people living in the area that I don’t know personally and it’s one of the things they want to see changed,” said the newest Inverness Central councillor.
“I believe the curfew needs to be reviewed because an awful lot of people fall foul and I think it’s harming Inverness’s reputation — not just in Scotland, but internationally.
“Tourists suffer particularly from it and don’t find out about it until it is too late.”
He wants the council to work with licensed traders, emergency services and the public to find a solution to any potential problems that could arise from dropping it.
A decision on its future could then be passed to the Inverness City Committee, rather than the Highland Licensing Board.
“Local councillors know their areas better than anybody else and would be best placed to make decisions on issues like the curfew,” Councillor Laird commented.
He insisted the city committee should have more power, adding the working group which recommended the final route for the Inverness bypass should have been formed solely from Inverness councillors.
“Inverness has lacked a civic identity for far too long,” he added.
“The city committee is basically a talking shop and has no real budget or power.
“The important decisions that affect the city are not being made by Inverness councillors but by people across the Highlands and that one size fits all approach isn’t working.”
