Row over store's 24-hour booze bid

A supermarket which wants to sell alcohol 24 hours a day at weekends on a road once dubbed the most dangerous in the city today came in for heavy criticism.

On the same week that a national debate on Britain's booze culture was prompted after three teenagers were jailed for kicking a man to death while drunk, Budgens announced it wants to sell drink round the clock at a new store in Prince of Wales Road on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Police and angry neighbours have objected to the proposal, saying it will lead to a rise in crime and disorder and make the task of officers at controlling trouble in the street even harder.

The controversy was sparked in the same week that Cheshire's police chief Peter Fahy hit out at cheap alcohol in supermarkets, bad parenting and a culture of drinking too much for alcohol-related violence in youngsters.

The chief constable was speaking out after three teenagers were found guilty of kicking to death Garry Newlove, 47, after he confronted the drunk youngsters outside his home in Warrington last summer.

Mr Newlove's widow Helen, 44, called for politicians to take action to make the streets across the country safer.

While police in Norwich have cracked down on drink-related crime and antisocial behaviour in Prince of Wales Road in recent years, Budgens' application comes at a time when fears over alcohol-related violence are high.

Two neighbours have objected to the plans, and the police want several precautionary measures to be taken by Budgens to avoid trouble, before it withdraws its objection.

These include having two staff working on the premises at the close of business or, when the premises is open 24 hours, between 11pm and 4am.

Police also want a door supervisor to be on the premises from 9pm until 4am every Friday and Saturday night when the premises are open after midnight, and for 24 hour CCTV to be in operation.

Chf Insp Peter Walsh said they had spent years working with people, the licensed trade and local authorities tackling alcohol-related antisocial behaviour and violence in the Norwich area.

He said: “There is a strong link between alcohol and disorder, and especially crimes of violence where we reckon in 75pc of crimes either the offender or the victim is affected by alcohol.

“It is a complex situation and together we have worked on a range of different interventions. But I'm happy to say that, while we cannot claim to have eradicated crime and disorder associated with excessive drinking, it has been greatly reduced in recent years.

“This is partly because we take a tough stance when dealing with problems of disorder, but mainly because we carefully plan action and operations with our partners to prevent or reduce the likelihood of problems occurring in the first place.

“The key is to prevent young people, those who have already drunk too much and those who are disorderly, or have shown a pattern of disorderly behaviour in the past, from obtaining and consuming alcohol.

“We will continue to take firm action when problems occur but there will also be other work to promote safe drinking and responsible, considerate behaviour in and around the pubs and clubs in the city, suburbs and market towns.”

Budgens' plans are a concern to Eric Carman, 77, and Brian Cowell, both from Riverway Court, Recorder Road, who wrote to the council to object.

Mr Carman said: “We're already plagued with noise, drunkenness and urination in our car park, which costs us £300 each time to clear up, emanating from the pubs, clubs and fast food establishments in the area.

“To allow this will only add to the problems, and make the area even less attractive to the elderly population who live in the retirement homes.”

Mr Cowell added: “Our fear is that clubbers and those unable to get into clubs will use the proposed licensing hours as a means of obtaining further supplies of alcohol. We already suffer vandalism, shouting and screaming in the early hours, urination and defecation.”

Budgens' plans are also a concern to Neil Morris, 22, joint manager at The Compleat Angler pub in Prince of Wales Road.

He said: “We already get a lot of noise and disturbance throughout the night, and this will probably make it worse. I think it would be quite irresponsible of the council to approve it. On the one hand, it keeps saying it wants to stamp out antisocial behaviour, but allowing this could make it worse.”

But Mr Foster said he had no problem with a 24-hour Budgens if it could assure the police and the licensing authority it could prevent trouble.

He said: “In Norwich we have established a working relationship between the residents, the police, the licensing authority and licensees, and everyone knows that it's not to anyone's advantage for trouble like this to happen.

“We all work together in the licensing forum partnership and that's why I think we have escaped most of the problems that have occurred elsewhere in the country, and we get nothing like the problems cities like Nottingham, Birmingham or Cardiff do,

“I don't think we will get the type of incidents, such as the Newlove case, here.

“But I don't want to seem smug, as we have always got to be on our toes at all times. But we've got a working mechanism through the licensing forum to stop it happening.”

Last March the Evening News reported a sickening 30-second attack on a homeless man outside the KFC in Prince of Wales Road was filmed and posted on YouTube.

In September 2005 three soldiers were told they were fortunate not to be jailed for their part in a savage assault in Prince of Wales Road.

The two soldiers in the Household Cavalry and a Welsh Guardsman had been on a drinking spree after taking part in a two day sleep deprivation exercise. They attacked two city men on a night-out and their violent assault was caught on CCTV.

However, last month licensed premises across the county were praised by police after most businesses involved in a test purchasing operation refused to sell alcohol to youngsters.

Young volunteers working for the police were sent to several licensed premises in the city in order to buy booze but in three out of four cases the attempted purchases were refused.

A spokeswoman for Budgens confirmed that the 2,700 sq ft supermarket was opening on January 31, but could not comment on the licensing hours until the committee meeting next week.

The supermarket has applied to sell alcohol from 7am to midnight from Mondays to Wednesdays, and from 7am on Thursdays to midnight on Sunday. The plans will be discussed by Norwich City Council's licensing subcommittee on Friday .

Norwich Evening News