Comfort and joy for Salisbury's 'late night economy'

CHEERS! Wiltshire councillors have decided we don’t need a tougher licensing regime to clobber anyone planning to open a bar, club or restaurant selling alcohol in the city centre.
Whilst there is a regrettable amount of drink-fuelled yobbery in Salisbury, I don’t believe such a crackdown would prevent it. Rather, the problem would move a few yards outside the boundary of any newly-introduced ‘cumulative impact area’.
The idea will be reviewed in a year’s time, i.e. it’s been kicked into the long grass. Let it stay there.
I do sympathise with those residents who have found unwelcome deposits or even overnight guests on their doorsteps but these are matters for the police, not excuses to load what is euphemistically called our ‘late night economy’ with regulatory burdens.
That being said, the Police Federation is telling us that “substantially” fewer arrests have taken place since the closure of the Wilton Road station because detainees have to be carted off to Melksham.
So we may have good reason to fear an increase in anti-social behaviour.
The Wiltshire force, on the other hand, says the numbers have remained stable.
We need facts and figures. We shouldn’t have to choose whether to take the word of one side against the other when it appears that an internal battle is raging over such an important issue.
After all, it’s amazing the way you can spin an argument depending on your point of view.
It’s easy, for instance, to say, as was reported this week, that most people “unless they’re directly affected” are in favour of the development of hundreds of houses around the perimeter of Old Sarum airfield.
What about those who are directly affected? Not just neighbours, pilots, plane-spotters and history buffs but those manning our struggling public services.
And more importantly, what about English Heritage’s view that this unique little survivor from World War One needs to be preserved in its entirety? That’s a lost cause now.
I may be idealistic, but I’m not naïve. I wasn’t shocked by the way this development site was shoehorned into the South Wiltshire Core Strategy at the last minute, without proper public consultation. But I was disgusted and continue to be so.