The South Ayrshire Council are to ‘crackdown’ on celebrity late night guest appearances in Ayr nightclubs.

This comes as the Council’s Licensing Board aims to restrict longer opening hours for bars and clubs.

Venues such as Vinyl https://licklist.co.uk/club-de-mar and Buf https://www.facebook.com/thebufayr/ managed to win permission to host big names such as Katie Price last year promoting the clubs to apply for extended hours.

Reality stars such as Joey Essex and the cast of Geordie Shore as well as members of the boyband Blue have partied with the people of Ayr in previous years.

However, the police and the board raised concerns about the high level of applications to extend opening hours. There were at least 107 applications in South Ayrshire last year.

Policing issues are also a factor. Struggles to staff the town to support the extended opening hours have created an issue. https://www.scotland.police.uk/police-stations/ayrshire/150559/

Councillor and member of the licensing board Siobhian Brown said that the main objective is finding a ‘fine balance of encouraging a vibrant local nightlife together with a responsibility of regulation the sale of alcohol’. https://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/councillors/siobhian-brown.aspx

She added: ‘A clampdown of celebrity appearances is not an accurate representation of the board’s decision… we need to take on the views of the whole community with the impact of granting these licenses. Especially if extra policing is needed’.

Talking to young people, the general view was the celebrity appearances as well as later opening hours would make going to the nightclubs more appealing.

Events like popular race days such as Ayr Gold Cup and the Scottish Grand National are classed as special events by the board and will be more flexible. But the increased hurdles facing South Ayrshires nightlife could still have a negative impact on planning events and booking guest.