Calls for booze to be banned from streets

Wrexham could become only the second place in the UK to enforce a county-wide ban on boozing in public places.

It would also become the first authority in Wales to make the move if calls from an opposition leader on the council are carried out.

Cllr Neil Rogers said residents in the town and the surrounding villages were "sick and tired" of having to put up with drunken yobs consuming vast amounts of alcohol on the streets and in parks.

The councillor told yesterday's executive board meeting, during a debate on a new anti-social behaviour strategy, that Wrexham should be the first authority in Wales, and only the second in Britain, to introduce a total ban on boozing in all public places.

Cllr Rogers said: "Every Friday and Saturday night, in every community in Wrexham borough, there is alcohol being consumed by young children. It is a concern which keeps coming up at every community council meeting and every residents' meeting.

"People are sick and tired of it. They are fed up to the back teeth of these youngsters drinking alcohol and then causing problems.

"Not only are they drinking illegally, they don't take the bottles back to the shop or recycle them, they insist on smashing them, causing a major health and safety problem for communities.

"The only answer I can see is that we become the first council in Wales to impose a blanket ban on drinking in public places. The police have the power to take the alcohol away. Communities are being threatened and we must protect them.

"The legislation is there. Let's make it work and let's stop this anti-social behaviour in these communities. If we identify hotspots and impose bans bit by bit we will be
here until 2020. We can't do it piecemeal – we have got to have a total ban."

However, council officers told the meeting the Home Office was not keen on introducing total bans – although they also pointed out that Brighton Council was allowed to introduce a blanket ban.

They said the Home Office favoured councils identifying hotspots where problem drinking occurred and then introducing bans in those areas.

Council leader Cllr Aled Roberts said it was clear drinking on the streets was making "people's lives a misery". He said if the Home Office did not support a blanket ban the council could hold a workshop for councillors to look at the issue and develop the idea.

After further debate it was agreed to support the council's anti-social behaviour strategy.

Flintshire Standard