Last Thursday was the last day for the nations of Lund to apply for the dancing permit that will be required to hold nightclub activities in the future. Despite earlier doubts, many applications were submitted on time.
By Thursday, March 31, the student nations in Lund were supposed to have applied for a dancing permit for their activities. Which, in practice, means that the nations will have to apply for a general condition and hire security guards for the nightclubs.
Many nations on time
When the demand for the permit was first made, at the end of February, the fast acting and rough demands from the police were criticized – but according to Fredrik Grotte, Chairman of Kuratorskollegiet, many nations were well on time.
“The last time we had a meeting with KK was two weeks ago. Around that time, about three to four nations had submitted their applications, but I think many have postponed it and will submit it today”, he said during the Thursday.
Kuratorskollegiet has held a meeting with both the chief of police Patrik Isacsson and Joakim Nyberg, the municipal police, responsible for the nation issue. The police admitted that communication on their side has not been as good as desired and that they will work to improve that in the future.
“They also talked about how the applications will take the current regulations at the nations’ into consideration. For example, when calculating the number of security guards needed the size of the nation’s premises will count”, Fredrik Grotte says.
No big influence in the short run
The demand for a dancing permit and security guards hits first and foremost the smaller nations with nightclubs. Curator Helene Andersson at Blekingska Nation however, thinks that the demand won’t affect the nation in the short run.
“We’ve sent in an application for a dancing permit according to the given instructions, and are awaiting a decision”, she says and continues:
“This semester our activities will proceed as planned. There won’t be any changes in our schedule or planned activities”.
The nations are pleased with police dialogue
Another nation active in arranging nightclubs is Västgöta Nation. They have also experienced that communication with the police has improved during the last month.
“From the beginning we got the impression that it would be possible to potentially postpone the submission date for the application. Apparently that wasn’t the case”, she says.
Jonna Restin has, however, accepted the reality of it all and now the nation has to scrape together what it can to keep business intact.
“Our ambition is to not let this affect our activities too much. We’ll just have to swallow the bitter pill and save money to make the economy break even”, she says.
Lundagård has contacted Joakim Nyberg for a comment.
Article: Axel Rydén
Translation: Elise Petersson
