Drive to train Cardiff bar workers

Welsh brewer SA Brain is spearheading a drive to help Cardiff pub workers tackle binge-drinking.

More than 160 city-centre barstaff are undergoing BII training as part of a scheme to encourage responsible drinking in the Welsh capital - one of the UK's busiest drinking circuits.

The training is being funded by the 'Lion's Breath' research project, which is led by the Cardiff Community Safety Partnership, and supported and promoted by Brain's.

The project, supported by the Alcohol Education and Research Council, Cardiff University, and South Wales Police, aims to reduce binge-drinking and associated violence and anti-social behaviour.

The training on offer leads to the BII National Barpersons' Certificate, which covers issues including underage sales, refusing drinkers and preventing trouble.

All 34 people who have taken the BIIAB exam so far have passed. Nick Newman, a member of the Cardiff Licensees Forum and manager of the Yard, Brain's flagship pub in Cardiff, has been instrumental in persuading pubs in the city to sign up.

"Most of the managers in the town centre are behind the initiative, said Nick. "It's a good qualification and the programme has huge training benefits for staff."

Since the Lion's Breath projected started in 2001, alcohol-related violence in Cardiff has cut by 16 per cent - and there has been a 20 per cent reduction in the number of people attending the city's A&E department for treatment to alcohol-related injuries.

Initiatives have included researchers offering city centre drinkers random breath tests to help then gauge the amount they have drunk.

Professor Jonathan Shepherd, chair of the Cardiff Community Safety Partnership's violent crime task group and Lion's Breath project said: "One key aim of the project is to attempt to improve the working practices of the city's licensees, which includes work around the mis-selling of alcohol to drunk or underage customers."