Knowledge should be accessible to all – but if the Labour government’s current licensing proposals are accepted the public will no longer be kept abreast of key developments and applications that impact their local area.

Ministers have launched a consultation on licensing reform, which includes a proposal to remove the statutory requirement for alcohol licensing notices to be advertised in print local papers. It is one of two separate moves by the government to stop these printed notices - the other would see changes to local authority governance also no longer published in local newspapers.

The requirement for anyone with a licensing proposal to publish a notice in a printed local newspaper allows the most trusted form of news distribution to share that information with the people who will be most impacted.

With many parts of West Somerset and Wellington still unable to get reliable 3G signal, let alone solid internet, this element of the proposal threatens to potentially deny those residents access to the knowledge they deserve.

For example, when The Kings Arm’s Wellington was a pub, and not the thriving community centre it has now become, it made an application in 2012 to extend its hours.

The pub wanted to operate “night-club” like hours of a weekend.

Town councillors expressed strong concerns at their meeting after police reportedly made no objections to the pub’s application – despite reporting to this newspaper that door staff had been attacked outside the venue just a few months early.

Licensing officials at Taunton Deane Council had said it could stay open until 3am on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, however, the authority later stressed that last entry into the venue would remain at 12.30am.

Similarly, Minehead live entertainment Bar 21 applied for an extension to its licence to allow drinking until 3am every day of the week.

It followed the renovation of an adjoining former retail clothes shop which had been used by Bar 21 as a function room.

Locals at the time raised concerns with Somerset Council regarding noise and anti-social behaviour. They said: “In the case of representations objecting to the proposed licence variations; the majority of concerns raised relate to apprehensions regarding public nuisance (predominantly noise nuisance), as well as prevention of crime and disorder (in particular, anti-social behaviour), and the predicted impact of an extension to licensable hours and activities on the local area and to local residents.”

However, these were addressed during the consultation period and Somerset Council confirmed: “Following a meeting between the two parties, an agreed position was reached between Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the applicant during the consultation period, which included several conditions to be added to the licence, as well as an amendment to the proposed licensable hours.”

The application was approved with amendments.

All of this information would not have been available to the public had your local newspaper not carried the necessary notices and subsequent articles highlighting the issue.

For more information on licensing changes in your area and other public notices, visit the UK's public services portal at https://publicnoticesportal.uk