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Aidan McDonald |
‘We’ll keep 2am students quiet,’ says uni bar boss
College bids for a late licence as neighbours oppose application
UNRULY students will be barred from City University’s new £1.5million Student Union bar and forced to undergo a humbling interview process if they upset their neighbours.
Student Union general manager Aidan McDonald has planned a series of hi-tech measures to keep drunken students on the straight and narrow in the hope of being granted a later licence for the university’s new-look restaurant-bar Ten2.
Mr McDonald has applied for a licence to serve alcohol and for dancing to be extended until 2am on Wednesdays – known as “sports night” at universities across the country – as well as Fridays and Saturdays. The application will be heard at the Town Hall next Wednesday.
He also hopes to hire the venue out for private functions at weekends.
Over the summer, the venue, in Northampton Square, Finsbury, has been transformed from a tired, alcohol-focused bar into a multi-purpose venue serving food, coffee and offering a meeting place for societies.
Mr McDonald said: “It’s completely different – a smart new social space for students. We’ve taken into account student tastes. Societies always want to host events, for example the Chinese society wants to put on fashion shows.”
The new building has been designed so it can be split into separate spaces for groups to hold their own functions, while the Student Union carries on with business as usual.
Mr McDonald said: “We’ve a lot of international and postgraduate students and they want to meet each other, have coffee and talk. Student behaviour has completely changed. If your business relied on the sale of alcohol you’d be in trouble because 60 per cent of students from outside the EU spend nothing on alcohol as do 24 per cent of UK students. It’s not the same as it was 10 years ago.”
The notorious Wednesday sports nights are the ones with the greatest risk of upsetting the neighbours.
But Mr McDonald said: “Wednesday nights will be like a comedy. After the students have been on the pitch we’ll have little games, give out prizes, sort of building a sense of community.
“I’m quite clear that Wednesday night is the middle of the week and there can be absolutely zero public nuisance. I will be there watching. We’re clear this is restricted to City University students who have something to lose.”
To combat any trouble, he said students will be dispersed into small groups.
Mr McDonald said “If there’s any misbehaving we can take their ID cards and this will be caught on CCTV. This will generate an incident report that goes straight to me.
“They will then have to go through an interview and have to explain how they think the neighbours would feel. Then I have to decide whether to give them their card back or to give them a temporary ban.”
However, many neighbours have written to the council to oppose the application.
One wrote: “All too often when leaving, students pour into the square and with no immediate desire to abandon the party, remain in the area. There they continue their revelry by consuming alcohol, make a great deal of noise and, for those who have cars, rev engines. From time to time pranksters knock on doors, ring bells and have even urinated in letter boxes.”
Another couple, both hospital consultants, wrote: “This will be a nuisance to us but a greater threat to our patients.
“Would you like to have an operation by a surgeon who had less than four hours sleep? Would you like to have your child attended by a sleep-deprived doctor?” |
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