Plans for more powers for local people to tackle anti-social drinking
Local people will be given more power to oppose alcohol licences in their area if they feel they will increase anti-social behaviour, the Government announced yesterday.
As part of plans to combat drink-fuelled violence and intimidation, which also include scrapping Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO), Home Secretary Theresa May announced plans advocating strong community action to make anti-social behaviour "unusual, abnormal and something to stand up to."
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The Home Secretary said binge-drinking and alcohol-related violence will also be tackled through reforms of the licensing system.
Under the plans, individuals will be able to object to late-night opening applications regardless of their proximity to the site, as long as they can prove they will be affected by alcohol-related problems from the venue.
Currently, the public can only object to opening hours or new licensing applications if they are neighbours of the premises.
Alcohol-related anti-social behaviour has become a key issue in popular South West resorts like Newquay and Torquay.
Dave Sleeman, chairman of the Newquay Town Residents' Association, said: "I think that these new plans are a very good idea.
"In the past licenses have been handed out to every Tom, Dick and Harry that wants one, and that doesn't help anybody.
"There is no overnight solution, but bit by bit we'll get there and steps such as these are very helpful.
"By and large, it is the residents who know what is good for their town."
As well as an overhaul of licensing legislation, the Home Secretary also said it is "time to move beyond" Anti Social Behaviour Orders, which could be phased out.
Statistics released by the Ministry of Justice yesterday revealed that 43 per cent of ASBOs issued in Devon and Cornwall have been breached. The figures show between April 1999 and December 2008, 123 of the 286 ASBOs issued in the region were breached at least once. On average, those who breached their ASBO did so 3.7 times.
Mrs May said communities will be given greater flexibility to find a solution that suits them.
But bar and club owners were yesterday less keen on the new plans.
Gill Locke, who owns Jesters nightclub on Plymouth's Union Street with her husband Kenneth and their two sons, said that the new licensing proposals could prove "very unfair".
She said: "If they are saying that anybody who wants to stick their nose in, who might not even live nearby, will be able to influence the decision then that would be very unfair and could create a lot of problems in the future."
5 Comments
by Jane North, Dot's cafe
Wednesday, August 04 2010, 2:02PM
“About time too.”
by David, St Austell
Friday, July 30 2010, 10:34AM
“The culture of going out intending to get drunk has to stop. When I was young I went out drinking often and on some occasions got drunk. But I and the mates I went out with did not go out intending to get drunk as they do now. It is even worse with the girls, who have a lower alcohol resistance generally than men, who got out intending to get drunk and are more vulnerable to abuse as we have seen in another report on this site. The youth of today for some reason seem to have an arrogant air, why I don't know and if you tell them off for whatever reason you are liable to gat a mouthful of verbal abuse or even in some cases physical abuse. Put these same people outside a lot of booze and it's no wonder there is so much violence on our streets a. t weekends”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Thursday, July 29 2010, 9:50PM
“:| This where I agree, yet disagree with some of your thinking David. . People could always buy cheap 'booze' from the supermarkets or the booze cruises. . The concept of later varied licensing hours was a good one, and I for one applauded it. . It treated people as 'adults' and it did away with the manic last orders and kicking everyone out at the same time. . Most sensible people just started a little bit later because they were able to finish later and return home in their normal orderly manner. . The problems arose with the failure to jump on any abuses right from the very start. . That allowed the drunken behaviour we now see to become established and it began to be seen as the acceptable norm. . . It has always been 'right of passage' of the young to get legless. . That's how they learn it gives them a really bad hangover. . If a few more had just been jumped on and thrown into the cells for the night, and made to clean them in the morning, sobering lessons would have been learned, and then the majority of sensible people could still have the full benefits of a free society in the 21st Century.”
by David, St Austell
Thursday, July 29 2010, 3:06PM
“The idea behind relaxed licencing hours was that with the hours of people leaving licenced premises being staggered the likelihood of booze fuelled violence would lessen. Unfortunately this was based on the European model where apparently people there do not go out with the intention of drinking as much as they possibly can in a short time. This is bound to lead to trouble and has done. Part of the blame can be laid firmly at the doors of the supermarkets for selling cheap n below cost price to get the punters in through the doors. The culture of going out with the intention of getting drunk is one of the curses of modern youth Whatever happened to just going out for a few drinks and enjoying the evening?”
by Oh Parnasus, Mothership
Thursday, July 29 2010, 12:38PM
“What?
So I can have a say on licensing issues in Truro, despite living 60 miles away?
It's good to know that Theresa May is dealing with problem drinking and late night opening by being YET ANOTHER politician who ignores the fabulously relaxed and safe drinking enviroments in most European countries, and seeing how their societies work.
Nahhh, shut earlier and take their drinks away, that'll make people happy, because taking away personal freedoms always makes people happy doesn't it Theresa.
Honestly, we've got a girl called Theresa who's going to get tough on crime...”