Nottingham Business Improvement District (BID) has launched a new scheme to ban prolific offenders from its pubs.
So far 100 venues in the city centre have signed up to the Licensed Premises Exclusion Notice Scheme, which allows licensees to issue warning cards to individuals when they commit an offence on their premises.
If an individual received two warning cards or just one, if the offence involves violence or drugs, they will be automatically banned from all venues participating in the scheme.
Their information will also be circulated to the businesses involved via Nottingham BID’s secure information sharing system.
Exclusions can be appealed, but only after an incident-free period of six months and after the offender attends an alcohol awareness class run by Last Orders Alcohol Support Services.
The scheme is open to members of the Nottingham BID as well as venues who are linked to the Nottingham BID’s radio scheme even if they aren’t BID members.
Neil Fincham, a director of the Nottingham BID, said: “We want Nottingham city centre to be as safe and enjoyable as possible for people in the evening and at night and this new scheme will play an important part in helping to reduce alcohol related crime. We are confident that more and more venues will sign up to the scheme as they start to see the benefits.”
Vanessa Hawkes, manager of Cape, one of the businesses that has signed up to the initiative, said: “This scheme creates a united front that benefits businesses, customers and the city as a whole.
“It shows that we care and won’t tolerate alcohol related crime, helping to make the city a safer and more welcoming place at night.”
The Licensed Premises Exclusion Notice Scheme is the latest of a number of initiatives led by the Nottingham BID to make the city centre as attractive as possible in the evening. These include a team of taxi marshals who help manage city centre taxi ranks at night, the late night opening of the Greyhound Street toilets, additional street cleaning and the Best Bar None accreditation and awards scheme. The BID also contributes to the team of street pastors who assist people in the city centre at night.
