Ms Evelyn Jones:

There was a great law in force for 98 years from 1902 to 2000, under which one was not allowed to create a new off-licence, that if one wished to open one in a city, one had to close down two to do so. Then somebody came along in 2000 with the bright idea of swapping one for one and removing the requirement to extinguish two licences. If we had continued with the situation in 2000, each year somebody opened an off-licence there would have been a closure of two and gradually there would have been a reduction in the number. Unfortunately, however, the Department of Justice and Equality went down this road after 2000 and destroyed 98 years of good work.