More than 50 North Ayrshire pubs apply to open late for World Cup

More than 50 pubs from across North Ayrshire have applied to licensing chiefs for extended hours during the forthcoming men’s FIFA World Cup.

The tournament kicks off in June and members of the North Ayrshire Licensing Board were on Monday given a full update on pubs which had applied to screen games, including the Scotland opener against Haiti in the early hours of Sunday, June 15.

The Scots also face Morocco and Brazil in what is their first appearance in the finals for 28 years.

Chris Pollok, Licensing Manager said: “The deadline publicised for licence holders was the end of last month and by that deadline we had received applications from 57 premises for extended hours, covering 336 separate dates for pubs to extend their hours and a lot of them will be the same dates.

“They are applying for the Scotland matches, plus all other matches.

“So far, 22 of those applications have been processed so we are well on our way with these. At that rate I would hope within three to four weeks we will be in a position to give information to all the premises who applied.

“They are all subject to a consultation with the police and the licensing standards officer and all applications have been vetted and they have been confirmed to be within that policy so we don’t envisage any issues at this stage.”

Licensing chair Eleanor Collier said: “That is quite a good number of applications as not all games need an extension but the pubs have chosen the ones that the public might want to see.

“The applications have come from all over -Irvine up to the north coast. If the public want to see a match in their area there should be a pub in their locality.

“The conditions are similar to what apply to nightclubs as there will not be as many people about at that time of night.

“People have to apply unlike some areas and those who apply should benefit. Late applications will still be considered.”