Worksop: Police say town pubs are safe place to visit

A Freedom of Information request by the Guardian found that police were called out to, or near to, pubs, clubs and bars more than 300 times from 1st January 2014 to 1st January 2015.

Some pubs have also since responded to the stats to confirm that police have never been called under their ownership.

Sgt Adrian Scargill, of Notts Police, said: “Firstly, it is worth noting that many of the incidents recorded will not have occurred inside licenses premises but merely in the vicinity.”

“It is also essential people know about the excellent work licensees are carrying out in support of Notts Police.”

“Worksop has an online Pub Watch scheme which works in partnership with ourselves and the council licensing. The scheme has been so successful in has been adopted by Retford Pubwatch. Now both pub watches can work closely together to ban offenders from the two towns in Bassetlaw.”

“Thanks in no small part to the efforts of licensees, Worksop is a safe place for people to come on an evening which is highlighted by the fact we have not had a single breach of licensing laws, despite regular, weekly checks.”

A spokesman for Yates’s, Victoria Square, said: “A significant number of the incidents attributed to Yates’s, were not in fact related to the pub, but were incidents that occurred on the street, many of which were whilst the premises was closed.”

“As a landmark in the town, the pub’s name was included in incident reports to describe the general area.”

“We have a close working relationship with the police’s licensing team and proactively report incidents, however minor, to them. This positive approach to crime reduction is consequently misconstrued in crime figures.”