Nightclubs to sue Scottish Government over toxic Covid rules NIGHTCLUBS are to sue the Scottish Government over toxic Covid safety rules they claim are destroying the industry. The Night Time Industries Association will take their case to the courts after a long-running war of words with the government. The group - which represents nightclubs and bars across the country, including the Glasgow s own Sub Club and the Garage - claimed the threat of the deadly virus was no longer as severe as it was even a few short months ago , thanks to rapid progress on vaccines and falling rates of deaths and hospitalisations.
THE Scottish Government is to be challenged on laws restricting hospitality and night-time economy businesses by a group of industry bosses. The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) Scotland said that it was with an extraordinary sense of disappointment and frustration that the group will now commence legal action against the Scottish Government and challenge the validity of legal restrictions to their industry. They said that 39,000 jobs are at risk as a result of closures due to the coronavirus pandemic and that some businesses have now incurred unsustainable debt . Gavin Stevenson, director of the Mor-Rioghain Group and vice-chair and spokesman for NTIA Scotland, said: It is with an extraordinary sense of disappointment and frustration that we have commenced legal action against the Scottish Government. While Scottish Government Ministers have repeatedly paid lip service to the concept of consultation with the late-night, music, culture, and licensed trade se
BBC News
Published
image copyrightGetty Images
Bar and nightclub bosses are mounting a legal challenge over Scottish government restrictions on the industry.
The trade body Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) Scotland announced a bid to end limits on venue capacity and opening hours.
It said the curbs are no longer justifiable or proportionate .
Under Scotland s current Covid rules, alcohol can only be served outside and venues must close at 20:00 indoors.
NTIA Scotland said in a statement: The hospitality sector in general, and late-night sector in particular, has been driven to the edge of insolvency by the severe restrictions in place since the start of the pandemic.
Nightclubs, you say? Is the Sub Club reopening? Not yet. There is no word on when nightclubs can reopen from the Scottish Government so far. The summer perhaps. But the V&A in Dundee will reopen its doors with a new exhibition entitled Night Fever: Designing Club Culture, which looks at everything from nightclub architecture, to fashion, lighting and club culture, while taking in the likes of Studio 54 in New York in the 1970s and Manchester’s Hacienda in the 1980s and early 1990s. Oh, and the Sub Club and Dundee’s own Fat Sam’s also feature.
No mention of The Grange where all the students flocked to in Stirling to dance to Grandmaster Flash’s The Message in the early 1980s then?
Submitting.
Originally created by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and Brussels design museum ADAM, Night Fever has been updated to feature a dedicated showcase of Scottish club culture, entitled The First Big Weekend, after The Arab Strap song.
It recalls the impact of venues and club nights like the Sub Club and Optimo, in Glasgow, Locarno in Dundee, Fever in Aberdeen, Club 69 in Paisley and The Rhumba Club, which has been staged across Scotland since 1991.
The exhibition – which features an eerie laser scan film of a deserted Sub Club – recalls the rise and fall of venues, ill-fated enterprises, the impact of ground-breaking eras like disco and acid house, and the celebrities who helped propel nightclubs into the limelight and the headlines.