Licensing Panels across the country who are discovering they are almost powerless to stop late night drinking are tightening controls on live music and entertainment instead.

It's about the only way they can support residents concerned about noise resulting from extended licensing hours.

This is not only a problem for pubs, especially those in residential areas, who traditionally support live music.

It is likely to also become a problem for festivals based in urban areas such as Chippenham, Sidmouth and Broadstairs.

A festival like Sidmouth with a local authority known for its 'tough' licensing policies could be at particular risk in future of finding much tighter controls on performances and sessions in licensed premises.

Afterhours sessions in The Bedford, for example, could well be a thing of the past as could the LNE events.

All very depressing and not what we were promised under the reform of licensing regulations.