A furious bar owner has hit out at the comhairle for blocking his bid for a late-night disco for Armed Forces Day saying local councillors don’t care about injured soldiers. The council refused his bid for an extension till 2am for a disco on Saturday night with a top international DJ to raise funds for Help For Heroes.

Calum Macleod

Now Calum Macleod of the music venue Clachan Bar says be believes the only reason councillors prevented the event raising the maximum cash for the injured veterans’ charity was because they were pursuing a religious Sabbatarian agenda. The Clachan, on North Beach Street in Stornoway, applied three weeks ago to hold the gig till 2am.

DJ Lange at the Clachan

“It was Armed Forces Day on Saturday so I decided it would be a great way to raise cash for Help For Heroes. That is why I booked the internationally-known DJ and producer, Lange, who had been playing in Ibiza earlier in the week.”

Calum said that his staff phoned the council on Friday to confirm they had the 2am licence but the council said no. “No reason was given and we have not even had the courtesy of a letter. It is quite appalling. They say they routinely refuse extensions on a Saturday into Sunday although they have no problem giving these extensions when the Hebridean Celtic Festival is on or at Christmas.

“However, when it comes to injured soldiers, they don’t care about them. They have stopped me making the most cash for them. It is ridiculous because we have a Sunday licence anyway. We are already open on Sunday afternoon and evening. It is all about councillors and the people who work for them being narrow-minded.”

He raged: “Help For Heroes is important to me. Our soldiers are going to other countries and losing limbs or worse. We should be supporting them.”
Under the regulations, venues cannot have an extension to the standard 1am licence without the licence actually being in their possession. They didn’t get it and he is unhappy that the council failed to send an explanation confirming the refusal. Now Calum wants an inquiry into who made the decision to refuse and the reasons for the refusal.

A spokesman for Western Isles Council said: “This authority is an active supporter of the armed forces in many ways and we have been involved in various events to mark Armed Forces Day. However, we will certainly look into the concerns raised by Mr Macleod.”