Drink law changes 'ridiculous' (From Harrow Times)

Drink law changes 'ridiculous'

7:00am Friday 7th March 2008 in News By Tristan Kirk

A HARROW councillor has called the Government's changes to alcohol laws "ridiculous", in the wake of a review into 24-hour drinking.

Councillor Susan Hall, in charge of environment services, said: "I think they thought we would become a café culture.

"But in England we have a reputation, very sadly, for binge drinking and lager louts.

"It's been ridiculous and hasn't worked."

A review by the Government shows crime and alcohol consumption is down since 24-hour licensing laws were introduced, but drink-related disorder and violence has risen in some areas.

After the review, Andy Burnham MP, secretary of state for culture, called on local authorities and police to use the powers available to them to enforce the law.

Harrow Council wants to extend an existing alcohol exclusion zone to cover the whole borough to combat street drinking in Harrow.

At a meeting on Monday, March 3, the council agreed to consult on extending the zone, which already covers large parts of Harrow.

Cllr Hall said: "If we want police to keep us safe, we have to give them the powers to do their job.

"Harrow is the safest borough in London, but we want to keep it that way.

"If it helps the police to have an alcohol exclusion zone in the whole borough, we are in favour of that."

Cllr Hall said she had discussed an extended zone with Chief Superintendent Richard Walton, borough commander for Harrow, who supported the idea.

She hopes, if the zone goes ahead, it will be in place by summer this year, at a cost of around £60,000.

Cllr Hall added that since the borough of Hillingdon implemented a controlled drinking zone in October 2005, some drinkers had come over to Harrow.

Chief Inspector Andy Jones, of Hillingdon Police, praised the zone in Hillingdon for reducing anti-social behaviour.

He said: "Having the whole borough as a controlled drinking zone has been a great benefit, particularly for the safer neighbourhood teams.

"It enables us to deal effectively with complaints from the public over allegations of drinking escalating in anti-social behaviour."

A 12-week consultation about Harrow's proposed borough-wide alcohol exclusion zone will happen.