Pub opening hours may not be extended for opening and closing ceremonies

[divingbrit]

British pubs are facing a bureaucratic hurdle to extend opening hours for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies, the chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association Brigid Simmonds has warned.

Simmonds said pubs were wanting to extend their usual trading hours to about 1am on the four nights of ceremonies, but a request for a national extension had been knocked back by the Metropolitan Police because of security concerns.

She said visitors would not be able to celebrate Olympic achievements with a quiet ale because many of the Games competitions finish around the same time as pub closing times. The Games opening ceremony is scheduled to finish between midnight and 12.30am.

A similar request for extended hours for the Royal Wedding last year was granted and Simmonds says the same approach to the Games is required.

"Sport is about celebration and this is a real chance to have a national celebration but at the moment people in pubs won't even be able to watch the opening ceremony," she said.

"We are just requesting the extension for the four days of the ceremonies but the police have objected and knocked it back."

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said there was a legislative challenge to extend the operating hours of pubs but in principle he had no opposition to the hours being extended for the ceremonies.

Olympic transport bosses, including Transport for London commissioner Peter Hendy, have been encouraging visitors to the capital to have a beer after work or after attending the Games to stagger their journeys home, but Simmonds said such this wouldn't be possible if the pubs were closed.

London organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe said the issue of pub opening hours was dealt with on a borough by borough basis and the councils had the flexibility to deal with the issue.

"Licensing is for the local authorities to make a judgment about at the time and they will do it based on what they have done in the past," Coe said.

"What I quite like about these things is the flexibility in the system to recognise that people from Europe will watch a performance and then it is reasonable for them to end the evening with an enjoyable meal with alcohol."

Telegraph.co.uk