By Matt Taylor
Since March 2008, drinkers congregating around Hanley’s new Job Centre have been intimidating and irritating homeowners in the residential area it was built in replacing the city-centre office.
Now, a year and a half on, after police said that bringing a ban on alchohol consumption in the area would be impossible without first gathering enough evidence of a necessity for the move, the city council is writing to residents to ask for their opinion on a public drinking ban.
Before an exclusion zone can be granted, consultation with the public must take place, which is why the council is contacting local people by post.
The new legislation would mean that police and PCSOs would have the power to confiscate alcohol from anyone drinking in the street. Anyone not complying can then be arrested.
The news is being welcomed by residents who have made increasing complaints about antisocial behaviour and other crimes in the area since the new centre was built and drinkers began using the area around it as a meeting place to drink. Elderly people have said that their walks into town passing the Job Centre are now marred by intimidating groups of people who have been drinking and violent disturbances and drug use and dealing is also of concern.
The new no-drinking zone will not only include the area around the centre but extend from Bucknall New Road to Town Road encompassing the entire Northwood area in an attempt to stamp out the problem.
The council is now appealing for comments on the proposal by 10th October along with any information about relevant incidents people have witnessed, which can be sent via email to safer.citypartnership@stoke.gov.uk.
It seems unlikely that anyone will have any complaints about the move…apart from those who will have to find somewhere else to take their giro-funded four-pack.
Why keep it just to the job centre?
The police have the right to take and destroy alchohol if those using it are causing a problem ie Breaching the peace, but there is not the will to carry it out.
A citywide ban on drinking alchohol in public places is needed, it has been carried out in other City’s with great success.
I have approached councillors about a ban and been told “what about having a drink in parks” a/ Parks don’t have licences to my knowledge b/ when was the last time you saw a couple having a bottle of wine with their picnic?
The other excuse is “what about people drinking in their front gardens” well if they are causeing a nuisance then the alhohol should be taken away from them.
This is not rocket science, drinking in public creates problems with anti-social-behaviour, and litter.
Common sense would not go amiss here.
“A citywide ban on drinking alchohol in public places is needed” – agreed.
“it has been carried out in other City’s with great success” – that’s very interesting Terry, so it can actually be done, what examples are there and what have they found as a result?
I’ve got an answer to the excuses to not do it, like parks etc. Let them apply for a specific permission to allow drinking, which could be taken away if there are excessive incidents as a result of it but provided it remains well behaved can carry on. This would allow the responsible drinkers their freedom but put the onus on the drinking venues to respect others they may affect.
Gordon Brown has come out and said that blanket bans can be placed in towns and cities at the discretion of the councils.
Last year, we put an application in to the city council asking for them to create a new by-law allowing for a citywide ban on the public consumption of alcohol. It was refused on the grounds that the governments law on controlling public drinking was strong enough.
Obviously bloody not!
This government were warned at the time about the deregulation of the licensing laws, they took no notice and brought chaos to the streets of Britain every Friday and Saturday night, and this about face proves they know it.
Damn communists should listen to us more often.
We don’t need any more laws, the police have enough, all they need to do is remember what laws apply to what.. Strangely the police have a lot of powers under many many laws, just use what we have..
Or what about a totalitarian state where everything is illegal until such a time as it is allowed in law..
“This government were warned at the time about the deregulation of the licensing laws, they took no notice and brought chaos to the streets of Britain every Friday and Saturday night, and this about face proves they know it.”
I’d love to know the link between pubs opening longer hours at night and jobless people buying cans of lager and drinking them in the street in the day.
Of course, he is right about the “communists”. New Labour came to power exactly like the Bolsheviks in 1917 Russia…had nothing to do with the backing of the Sun newspaper, all the bankers and middle-classes coming on board to vote them in democratically.
Still the incoming Tory government and BNP local council will sort it all out by picking on the poor and the weak and setting up death squads etc…I can’t wait, so long as the concentration camps aren’t in my back yard.
Mike,
you have to work with what you have, no matter how unsatisfactory that might be. If the way to get a citywide ban is through a new by-law, so be it.
What we really need is a programme to repeal most of the laws brought in by Labour, reliance should rest with common law, which is primarily the Magna Carta and the 1689 Bill of Rights.
In case you hadn’t noticed MIke, we already live in a totalitarian state.
I have been saying it for years, just ban it, no call for it at all, bloody drunks romeing round, armed with a pack of 4 and 20 fags, utter disgrace, ban it in public, and anyone seem more then a bit merry on the streets, take them down the station and lock the buggers up. I’m sick of seeing them, blasted off there heads, staggering round, coming out with all sorts, and the blokes are nearly as bad to.
Warren, let’s be fair, Tony’s not always like that!!!