Threat to close Lanark pubs on Lanimer Day

A special meeting is being called of the licensees of the town centre’s nine pubs to discuss possible joint action to prevent the traditional one-day suspension of the bylaw prohibiting drinking in public places being removed.

The police called for this action after last year’s Lanimers saw several violent “drink-fuelled” incidents.

The result of a South Lanarkshire Council consulatation via ‘Opinionmeters’ in several locations around the town is awaited.

But this process has come under attack as being too easy to ‘nobble’, a charge rejected by the council.

A prominent Lanark publican, who asked not to be named, told the Gazette that the public drinking ban would cause “absolute chaos” with “dangerous overcrowding” in Lanark’s nine surviving town centre pubs.

“Do the maths,” he told the Gazette. “I calculate that there are, in the nine pubs, capacity for 610 people at one time.

“The police estimate is that there are 8000 people at the Lanimers. The overcrowding in these pubs with an outdoor drinking ban will end in chaos. Utter chaos.

For more on this, pick up a copy of this week’s Carluke and Lanark Gazette.