Tallinn wants to close pubs at 3 a.m.

TALLINN – The city of Tallinn is asking the government to make a law amendment that would allow the city to set restrictions on the opening hours of entertainment venues and thus curb the noisy nightlife of Tallinn's Old Town that lasts often till morning, Postimees writes.

Deputy mayor of the city Arvo Sarapuu said that the law amendment would benefit not just the residents of Tallinn's Old Town but residents of other towns too whom night-time party-goers don’t give any peace.

The central Tallinn governor Mihhail Korb said that all pubs in the Old Town should be closed by 3 a.m. at the latest. "Starting 3 a.m. the number of police calls in central Tallinn surges. Thus the commercial activities law should be changed and local municipalities should be given the right to restrict the opening hours of drinking venues," he said.

"Tallinn is becoming notorious as the paradise of British bachelors, a place of hard partying, which a town that belongs to the UNESCO world heritage list clearly doesn’t wish for," said Korb, adding that most pubs and clubs are open there till early hours or round the clock. "The situation has become intolerable for residents of the Old Town," he said, adding that it also harms business of other companies, like hotels, whose clients suffer because of the noise.