Hastings town centre crime - police want to extend town centre licensing zone

On Monday (January 31), Hastings Borough Council’s cabinet gave their backing to plans to extend the town centre ‘saturation zone’, to include the whole of Queens Road, Wellington Place and Cambridge Road.

The proposal, which will go to a full council meeting in the near future, came in response to crime data from Sussex Police, which shows the roads had seen a relatively high number of Public Place Violent Crime (PPVC) offences.

Cabinet member Maya Evans (Lab) said: “I would like to recommend this report to full council and continue with this policy which has seen the town centre see improvements over the years in terms of shedding its previous reputation as being a ‘little raucous’, shall we say, on a Friday and Saturday night. 

“As we move forward as a town we will be receiving millions of pounds worth of regeneration money in the form of the Town Deal. We will be seeing new venues in the town centre, leisure venues. We will be seeing the garden town project, which will see trees up and down, especially Havelock Road and planting in the form of sustainable urban drainage.

“The character of our town will be changing and we would like to definitely encourage a mixture of venues into our town centre. Not just drinking establishments, we want eateries and evening entertainment. 

“This policy will hopefully encourage and reinforce that vision we have for a diverse town centre.”

Being within the zone means applicants looking to set up a new licenced premises, vary the conditions of their existing licence or secure permission to hold temporary events would need to show their proposals would not ‘add to the negative cumulative impact’ already being felt.

In practice, this means applicants will often be expected to accept additional restrictions to how they operate, for example shorter opening hours or door staff. 

Speaking at the meeting, council licensing officer Stewart Bryant said: “The reason why it was put in was to add a bit of guidance to the type of premises the town wanted and the times they could operate to. 

“If you wanted to have a restaurant in a mixed commercial and residential zone, for instance, we would be looking to say ‘yes, you could have [a licence] but we would be thinking would you close at 11.30pm’.

“What we have had of course is a proliferation of off-licences and things like that in Queens Road and the associated issues of street drinking.”

According to the police data there were 45 PPVC offences recorded in Queens Road between April 1 and November 30 2021, nine of which were connected to supermarkets.

A further 35 PPVC offences were recorded at Wellington Place, 12 of which were connected to fast food restaurants. 

In light of this, Sussex Police had suggested that those roads be included within the saturation zone. It was also suggested that Cambridge Road, which was already partly within the zone, be included in its entirety. 

Police had also suggested that Battle Road (which saw 29 PPVC offences over the same period) be covered by a saturation zone as well. This view was not shared by council licensing officers, who considered it would be ‘excessive’.

Sussex Police had also told the council it would support maintaining the town’s three existing zones, which also include High Street and George Street in Old Town and the area surrounding London Road in Central St Leonards. 

Police said this view was supported by the crime data, which showed all three areas had relatively high levels of PPVC offences.

The force also pointed to a year-on-year increase in PPVC offences across the three areas, although it is notable that the police data compares offences from April to November 2021 to the same period in the 2020, which was mostly subject to stricter coronavirus restrictions. 

While cabinet members backed the extension to the zone, there was some concern among members about how Sussex Police understood the policy, as they felt the force often took a position of outright refusal.

In response to this point, Mr Bryant said there had been a recent management change at Sussex Police licensing and that work was ongoing between a number of councils in East Sussex to advise police on how to approach such applications in future. 

In light of this, cabinet members also requested that the wording of the policy be amended to make clear that applications would not be turned down just because it would fall within the saturation zone.

With this change, the zone extension was given the support of cabinet members.