Action needed to reverse the culture of binge drinking
25th August 2009
The latest Home Office crime figures have revealed that across the Waveney district there were 1,775 violent attacks last year. Based on Government surveys of crime victims, this suggests that 834 of these attacks could have been alcohol-related.
There is growing concern about the overlapping problems of late night drinking, fast food outlets selling alcohol at night, under-age drinking, the easy availability of high-strength alcohol, and retailers like supermarkets selling alcohol below cost-price. Labour's licensing laws, which came into effect in 2005, have created a presumption in favour of alcohol licences being given out and have imposed tight restrictions on who can object to any licensing application.
The Police Federation has warned that the need to police town centres around the clock is making it harder to answer emergency calls elsewhere.
The Conservatives will tackle the problems by:-
- giving stronger powers and more discretion for elected local councils and a greater say for local residents on licensing applications.
- having tougher penalties available for premises which sell alcohol to under-age drinkers.
- reviewing the rules which allow fast food outlets to sell alcohol in to the early hours.
- changing the law to stop the "loss-leading" sale of alcohol by retailers.
- rebalancing the duty on alcohol: reducing rates on low-alcohol beers and ciders and increasing it on very high-strength products and on alcopops.
Currently the licensing laws are too lax. We don't want a return to the old days where every pub shut at 11.00pm. But local councils, like Waveney, need greater powers to tackle binge-drinking and anti-social behaviour. People should be able to have a night out without the fear of violence and parents should be reassured that their children are not going to come to harm. Lowestoft's pubs should not be tarred with the same brush as irresponsible "vertical drinking" bars.
Peter Aldous
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Waveney
