Police campaign 'taints image of city nightlife'
by John Harrington
Ultimate Leisure boss Bob Senior has criticised a police campaign entitled 'the party's over for tarnishing the image of the region's nightlife.
Three thousand arrests have been made in two months in the campaign, which has run across Northumbria since 1 May and is led by Northumbria's new Chief Constable Mike Craik.
Senior praised Craik earlier this year when he said that drunken yobs should be targeted in the same way as football hooligans, with early intervention based on intelligence.
But this week Senior, whose company is based in Newcastle, hit out at the 'party's over label.
In particular, he criticised the campaign posters, which depict drunken yobs with blurred faces.
'What (Craik) is trying to aim for is what we all want to take out the people who come to our great party and misbehave, and spoil it for the rest of us, he said.
'But it's giving an impression that people are coming to Newcastle and all they are doing is causing problems. The posters suggest it's all like that.
The Ultimate boss suggested that a better slogan would be 'There's no room in our party for party poopers.
Craik said: 'When I took over in April I promised total policing to tackle crime and disorder at all levels. That includes taking drunks off the streets so the rest of us can enjoy our lives in peace.
The number of arrests during the campaign is well above average. The average number of arrests for alcohol-related offences for a year is 8,200.
As part of the campaign, anyone arrested twice is taken to court and given an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO), which bans them from town and city centres. Police visit the offender on a Friday to warn them they will be re-arrested if they breach the ASBO.
