THE Mayor of Worcester is calling for pubs and clubs across the city to be hit with a controversial 'tax' to fund street clean-ups.

Councillor Roger Knight says he wants city leaders to consider the idea of a so-called 'Late Night Levy' - a bill on late-night venues to ease litter problems and crime from revellers.

The levy was launched in 2012 by the Home Office for councils struggling to cope with the scenes left behind from boozy antics.

Your Worcester News can reveal how the suggestion has already ran into fierce opposition from the city's drinking establishments.

Councillor Knight has urged the city's licensing and environmental health committee to consider it, saying even £100 from Worcester's 426 licensed premises would create a £42,000 fund to help.

Fellow councillors and bosses at Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS), which oversees the licensing function, say the move would be unlikely to work as under Government rules 70 per cent of the cash must go to the police.

Councillor Knight said: "Surely it's not beyond the wit of man to agree a policy for it, it strikes me that we're looking at all the reasons why we can't do this and not the reasons why we can.

"I think there are discussions to be had."

He said it would create a fund to help improve Worcester "without relying on the public purse".

Speaking during a committee meeting, he urged WRS to look into it but was told the idea had been considered in 2012 without making progress.

Niall McMenamin, from regulatory services, said: "It's something we have looked at in the past but for those councils who have introduced it, it hasn't quite yielded the money they thought it would.

"Seventy per cent goes to the police and the rest is mainly needed for administration."

Councillor Jabba Riaz, a former chairman of licensing in the city, said he'd looked at it too during his time running the committee and feared it would be "cost negative".

The levy results in premises being charged anywhere from £299 to a whopping £4,400 a year, depending on their council tax banding.

There are some exemptions like bingo halls, country pubs and those who stop selling alcohol by midnight.

So far it has worked well in cities like Birmingham, Nottingham and Southampton, with Liverpool the latest to be considering it.

But all of them are much larger cities than Worcester.

After the meeting Dean Hill, who owns Tramps, Velvet and Mode as well as chairing the 'Night Safe' pub watch scheme, said: "The majority of premises don't trade after midnight anyway, so the number they could do the levy on would be a lot smaller.

"We're taxed enough as it is - there is that much red tape."