CITY councillors have been invited on a ' night out' in Lancaster by the police to see for themselves the problems of policing the city centre at the weekend.

Members of the licensing regulatory committee will go out with police officers on patrols of pubs and clubs in Lancaster to experience first hand what the police describe as "operational difficulties."

The eye-opening night out is planned for May.

The invite was made last week during a committee hearing where two late night venues in Lancaster were identified by the police as having 'poor operational practices.'

The Alex on Penny Street and Elemental on North Road both had their public entertainment licences renewed for just three months instead of the usual 12 months to enable police to closely monitor the situation.

Members of the council's licensing regulatory committee decided on the three month renewal after being addressed by by PC Cheetham, who described police concerns about both venues.

He said there were poor operational practices at the premises and that by renewing the PEL for just three months the message would be sent out that they needed to improve their performance.

The Alex licence holder Gary Beattie said he accepted the restriction requested by the police and also a proposal by the committee that the management team at the Alex attend a drugs awareness course within the next three months.

At Elemental there were concerns about the way the venue was operating and also crowd control outside the club on North Road, which had raised fears for road safety.

The committee decided that the road safety issues should be referred to a full cabinet meeting.

This latest action follows a police request to councillors to revoke the Warehouse Nightclub's public entertainment license on January 4, which forced the club to close.