A woman has spoken of the daily nightmare of being surrounded by booze-fuelled disorder.
Anne Powell, 69, from Cheltenham Place in Brighton, said her community is being ripped apart by the constant barrage of noise from drunken revellers.
Mrs Powell said she is kept awake until 5am as often as four times a week and that her otherwise “idyllic” street is under attack from 24-hour licensing laws.
She has called on the Government and Brighton and Hove City Council to stand up to big businesses and put the interests of residents first.
She said: “I have come to dread the weekends. We have drinkers and smokers shouting and laughing outside the pubs until after 1am, then a constant barrage of people using this street to go in and out of the centre until 5am.
‘Huge impact’
“The changes to the licensing laws have had a huge impact on the lives of everyone living here.
"I have been here for 17 years and I knew there was a pub at the end of the street when I moved here. But I did not expect to be kept awake until 5am repeatedly. "How are we supposed to function in everyday life when we are getting a couple of hours sleep a night?
“I don’t blame the pubs. It is a symptom of a much greater problem sparked by ridiculous notion that if we had 24-hour drinking we would somehow adopt a European style café culture. That is not England. It is not our culture.
“Night-time economy – the phrase repeatedly parroted by Caroline Lucas and local councillors, is a euphemism for selling as much alcohol as possible to as many people as possible for as long as possible. The consequences are frightening in health terms and distressing to city centre residents.”
Mrs Powell said things got so bad she moved away from her house a few years ago.
Moved away
She said: “It got too much that I moved to Steyning but kept this house on.
“Apart from the noise it is an idyllic life here. There is a wonderful community and it would be a terrible shame if that was broken apart by these ridiculous licensing changes.
“We need someone to tackle this problem for the sake of our health and our sanity. But who is going to stand up to the supermarkets and the breweries?”
Peter Crowhurst, the chairman of North Laine Community Association, said: “The North Laine has changed completely since the Licensing Act of 2003.
“There have always been pubs and restaurants and no one is surprised they create some noise, but previously the area was quiet by midnight.
"Now people can be kept up until 5am and not just at weekends.”
Sound reverberates
Mr Crowhurst said there was little residents could do to counter the noise they were subjected to.
He said: “Many of these are narrow streets where the sound reverberates and people are coming back from loud pubs where they have got accustomed to speaking at a certain level.
“We are in a conservation area so it’s not possible to do a lot of the work that could soundproof our homes.”
North Laine residents have woken up to find windows smashed, pot plants missing and broken glass around their property.
Mr Crowhurst said: “I know people who have moved out of the North Laine because of the late-night noise.
"I hope that does not continue but I cannot see a solution to this problem being found.
“The council has made an effort to stop more premises getting licences but it is too late. The damage is already done.
“The night time economy is hugely important to this city and so that ties the council’s hands. On a national level I can’t see any Government wanting to take on the supermarkets.
“But alcohol costs this city £109 million a year. That must be taken into account.”
Peter Dowd, the landlord at the Basketmakers Arms in Gloucester Road, said: “The smoking ban has been the cause of most problems for us in terms of noise.
"Our hands were tied because we had to let people go outside to smoke but we were getting complaints when they made any noise.
“We put signs up but there’s only so much we can do. I’m not a policeman. I have been at the pub for more than 25 years and had two complaints in the 22 years before the ban. That summer I had 83 complaints.
“The changes to opening hours have been quite positive for us because we are the sort of pub that benefits from it. We don’t get much trouble.
Later hours
“When the changes came in I spoke to the neighbours and I said, ‘I’m not going to open until 1am or 2am but I am going to open until midnight on Friday and Saturday’. They understood that.
“Most of the problems they get are from people using Cheltenham Place as their route home from a club or pub in the centre.”
Hove MP Mike Weatherley, who has been a keen promoter of the importance of pubs to the local economy, said: “It is better for everybody that a good relationship exists between pubs and their neighbours. I have often supported pubs and live music venues but have always given the caveat that those living nearby are properly involved in any decision-making process. Ultimately, a good pub would be doing everything in its power to keep neighbours happy.”
Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas was unavailable for comment.
How can we tackle the late-night noise problem? Write to the letters editor or email letters@theargus.co.uk
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