Trade initiatives are cutting pub trouble

Responsible drinking initiatives implemented by the trade are having a positive impact on anti-social behaviour according to the BBPA.

Initiatives such as the Social Responsibility Standards code and Challenge 21 were helping to control drink-related behaviour in towns and city centres, a conference was told.

British Beer and Pub Association Midland Regional Secretary Richard Matthews told an audience of Police, local authority licensing officers, health workers and licensees that keeping the lid on promotions was a major factor in helping to reduce problems associated with the night-time economy.

Speaking at a Safer Nights in Worcestershire conference organised by the county's substance misuse action team at Worcester Rugby Club he outlined the recently launched industry Social Responsibility Standards code which he said was a "one-stop good practice guide for the industry."​

"BBPA member companies are supporting the code which outlaws 16 specific promotion styles including the irresponsible 'drink as much as you can' type offers and we would expect individual operators to do the same," he said.

Matthews added that the Challenge 21 scheme to tackle under-aged drinking was now gaining wider acceptance in the Midlands and new posters were being made available to member companies.

However he reminded the audience that despite the focus on town and city centre violence and the role of pubs and clubs it was a fact that off-sales, fuelled by cheap supermarket offers, were continuing to rise to the detriment of the on-trade.

Other speakers at the Conference included Alex Lahood, of the Home Office, who outlined the Government's Alcohol Harm Reduction programme, Police Sergeant Richard Hurt, who spoke about Blackpool's successful Nightsafe initiative, and Chief Inspector Charles Hill who told how licensees in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire had got together to ban troublemakers under a scheme called BAND---Bromsgrove Against Nightime Disorder.

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