Every year the Gay Village Street Party struggles to cover its costs. One of the reasons for this is that bars are not prepared to pay the costs of staging the Street Party, while people can go to the main supermarkets and buy cheap booze which they then drink on the street.
As with all previous years the big four supermarkets in St James Street Party have declined to put their hands in the pockets and help with a donation to the costs of staging the event.
One of the largest expenses involved with the Gay Village Street Party is the cost of security which is picked up by the bar owners through their TENS (Temporary events notice).
Most of the problems associated with the street party comes from people who get drunk from cheap booze bought at the supermarkets.
This year Sussex Police have refused TENS to all bars who did not submit a TENS request as part of the Gay Village Party grouping and threatened they had an ultimate sanction of closing bars down for 24 hours if numbers on the streets got out of hand if the ‘community’ did not organise an official event.
When asked if they would also close the supermarkets down as well the Police indicated no.
It is not fair that the Supermarkets sell cheap booze and the bar owners pick up the bill for keeping everyone safe.
If the Supermarkets are not prepared to help then maybe the time has come to challenge the terms of their alcohol licenses and think hard about where we, the ‘cumminity’ buy our fairy cakes and cosmetics in future.
