NO one will argue with the principle that places of public entertainment should be safe and that a body like the local authority should be responsible for ensuring that safety standards and rules are followed to the letter.

Over the years some horrific incidents at discos and nightclubs, especially abroad, have highlighted what can happen at places crowded with people enjoying themselves when fire breaks out and escape routes are not properly marked or worse still blocked.

But when it comes to karaoke licensees in Blackburn and Darwen do seem to face a set of demands which impose an unfair burden making it very difficult for them to compete with publicans just a few miles away who happen to be outside the borough.

Karaoke might not be everyone's idea of a good night's entertainment but it does seem illogical that a pub can run a disco and have a tv set on at the same time but be banned from allowing a customer to have a stab at 'My Way' while backing music plays and the words are read from a screen.

It is no secret that independently owned pubs are struggling to make a living and very few could, as LVA chairman Derek Haworth points out, afford to pay for special pyro wiring to be installed and close for two months so that the work can be carried out.

The Home Office seems to sympathise with his view and has sent out a circular giving guidance to local authorities on how they should implement the regulations. A spokesman rightly points out that the rules are intended to promote "fairness, consistency and transparency" and says some councils have been imposing licence conditions which are "excessive" by insisting that all electrical wiring equipment must conform to current building regulations "even though there is no question of safety."

Although the council no doubt imposed licence conditions with the highest possible motives - protection of the public - perhaps in the light of this Home Office circular now would be a good time to rethink their interpretation of the rules. That way too they might be able to argue their position with force rather than just in effect insisting: "We've always done it this way and we are not changing now."