Glasgow night spots could see their opening hours extended to 4am under plans put forward by the licensing board.
Under the proposal, clubs and other venues would be allowed to close later if they were able to demonstrate their contribution to the night-time economy.
Public views are being sought via a consultation which closes on October 5.
The licensing board said it was keen to see the city centre, where venues generally close at 3pm, remain "vibrant and attractive" for residents, visitors and businesses.
Research suggests the night-time economy generates around £2.16 billion and supports 16,600 jobs.
Glasgow Licensing Board chairman Matt Kerr said: "We want to support the licensed trade as much as we can while also ensuring we still provide the safeguards expected of us by the licensing legislation.
"By potentially granting licences until 4am while demanding the highest possible standards from licence holders we are striking the right balance between the licence trade and the needs of the wider community.
"It's very important to stress that this is still a proposal and that in any event, 4am closing would still be the subject a pilot programme that will draw in evidence from the likes of the police and the health service.
"We want feedback from as many people as possible on this proposal and others in the draft policy statement before reaching a final position."
Other proposals detailed in the board's draft statement include allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to remain on licensed premises until 11pm rather than 9pm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel