Dunmurry man campaigns for extended late night opening

Peter Armstrong, 25, has set up Open Late NI so people can sign a petition supporting later opening hours.

He said: “Nelson McCausland launched a 16 week consultation into extended opening hours for bars and clubs in Northern Ireland.

“The findings of this consultation will set the country’s opening hours in stone for the next decade and it’s our opinion that if major action isn’t taken, Northern Ireland’s economy will suffer.

“That’s why we have set-up the Open Late NI campaign.

Extensive

“Open Late NI has conducted extensive research into the Late Night Economies of Cardiff, London and Glasgow, and it’s apparent that those capital cities have reaped huge rewards from a modern, continental approach to opening hours. There’s no reason why Belfast and the rest of the country can’t benefit similarly.”

Peter continued: “Indeed, new legislation to extend our opening hours has the potential to create over 20,000 jobs in the local food, drink and entertainment industries alone.

“As a knock-on effect, tourism would receive a shot in the arm, meaning that NI could truly compete with its European counterparts.

“Open Late NI believes that more tourists and more to do in Belfast will help raise the city’s profile and make it a more vibrant and dynamic place to both live and visit.

“And the advantages don’t end there,” he continued.

Avoidable

“More staggered closing times will do away with the concept of ‘chuck-out’ time.

“This period, traditionally between 1am-2am, regularly results in swarms of people pouring out from clubs and bars onto narrow pavements.

“As anyone knows, this is a recipe for injury and anti-social behaviour.

“It adds a huge amount of pressure to the already stretched emergency services and it’s completely avoidable.”

Peter stressed that Open Late NI discourages drinking to excess but says that earlier closing times mean that people currently do this already.

He said: “They leave clubs at closing time and carry on their drinking session at home in an unsupervised manner.

“If extended opening hours encouraged people to spread their alcohol consumption over a longer period, in a safe and supervised establishment, there would naturally be less drink-related casualties.”

Modernised

Peter concluded: “The bottom line is that most other capital cities have modernised their opening hours to reflect the huge demand from the public.

“Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland must follow suit if they’re going to compete. Otherwise, it could be early doors for our late night economy.”

Visit www.OpenLateNI.com for more details.