{"id":19476,"date":"2021-07-02T16:38:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T15:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=19476"},"modified":"2021-07-02T16:38:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T15:38:20","slug":"cathedral-quarter-bid-welcomes-reform-of-licensing-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2021\/07\/cathedral-quarter-bid-welcomes-reform-of-licensing-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Cathedral Quarter BID Welcomes Reform of Licensing laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/unnamed-9.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/unnamed-9-1024x775.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19477\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District today (Friday, July 2) welcomed the long-awaited reform of liquor licensing laws, after a bill passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Destination CQ BID Manager, Damien Corr, said the changes within the Liquor Licensing Bill represent a significant step forward, after years of pressing for reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor more than a decade there has been a relentless campaign to remove antiquated licensing laws,\u201d he said.<br><br>As Belfast and the CQ quite rightly positions itself as a modern vibrant city, these new arrangements are a step change in enabling us to meet visitor expectations and should see a healthy increase in footfall and dwell time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new laws, which will come into force in October of this year will extend closing time to 2am, with an additional hour of \u2018drinking\u2019 up time, for 104 nights each year. Opening hours on Sundays will be the same as any other day of the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Easter restrictions on sale of alcohol have been removed, and there is set to be flexibility on opening hours at major events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe changes couldn&#8217;t have come at a better time for our hospitality sector who have taken a big hit since March 2020,\u201d said Damien.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCathedral Quarter, and the other BID\u2019s in the city worked hard to get Purple Flag status for Belfast to enhance our night time economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese changes mean we can work over coming months to support the sector in advance of the new laws coming into force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWith the new student campus coming soon at the Ulster University, and the associated accommodation we anticipate that Cathedral Quarter and its businesses will continue to thrive and grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe will work with partner agencies as we look forward to these welcome changes.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Corr added that restrictions around self-service alcohol point of sale, restrictions on off-sales promotions and banning loyalty schemes represent a balance to protect vulnerable people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For more information on the specifics of the bill go to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/excaliburpress.us12.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b56cc151b899ee73528141b05&amp;id=b5895622ac&amp;e=06a15b0b57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">communities-ni.gov.uk\/news<\/a>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District today (Friday, July 2) welcomed the long-awaited reform of liquor licensing laws, after a bill passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Destination CQ BID Manager, Damien Corr, said the changes within the Liquor Licensing Bill represent a significant step forward, after years of pressing for reform. \u201cFor more than a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2021\/07\/cathedral-quarter-bid-welcomes-reform-of-licensing-laws\/\">Continued<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19476"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19480,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19476\/revisions\/19480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}