Weekend ban for under-21s buying off-trade alcohol

Publicans in Wiltshire have welcomed a new scheme to ban under-21s from buying alcohol from shops.

The ban will apply to off-licences and supermarkets in Devizes and will be enforced on Fridays and Saturdays between 3pm and closing time.

Licensees believe the ban will prove pubs are not solely to blame for Britain's binge-drinking culture. If similar schemes are adopted across the country, it is hoped they could help ward off the potential draconian legislation mentioned in the national Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy, published earlier this month.

"People are drinking a skinfull at home and then we get blamed for drunken people in our pubs," said Raymond Burt, licensee of the Pelican Inn in Devizes. "We are at the end of the line and on the front line."

Mr Burt is a keen supporter of the scheme and said he believed that it would clamp down on drunk and disorderly behaviour fuelled by cheap alcohol bought from off-trade outlets.

The scheme to ban under-21s from buying booze has been developed by local licensees, supermarkets, off-licences, the police and the council, who are uniting in their fight against binge-drinking. It is hoped that if the ban is successful other towns with binge-drinking problems will follow suit.

Devizes' action has been well-received by local licensees and the trade as a whole, as it has long argued that the pricing policies of supermarkets in particular have encouraged people to drink at home before they go out to the pub.

Despite this, the blame for drunk and disorderly behaviour has been laid squarely at the feet of the pub trade rather than the off-trade.

The police in Devizes have had particular problems dealing with 18 to 21-year-olds buying cheap alcohol from supermarkets and then selling it on to younger teenagers.

Sergeant Andy Peach from Wiltshire Police said: "We've come across an 11-year-old boy before with a six-litre bottle of cider. He could hardly even carry it."

The ban, which was agreed on at a Pubwatch meeting earlier this month, will run on a trial basis until April 6.

Hilary Marsh, community safety officer for Kennet district council, said: "The council is part of a unified front in Devizes to tackle this problem. A social worker told the Pubwatch meeting how 13 and 14-year-old girls are turning up to pubs on weekends already drunk.

"So we are going to invite people from the local school to the next meeting to try and help them understand the problem."