Newport police in big push for plastic
Newport police is the latest force to push for a blanket glass ban in all city-centre venues.
Police have applied to the Community Safe partnership for a £10,000 grant for polycarbonate glasses and are pressurising all venues to use them after 8pm.
Officers have also begun lobbying Newport City Council to include the mandatory use of plastic as a licensing condition when its licensing policy is reviewed next year.
Inspector Talbot Thrush said the policy had the full backing of Newport Pubwatch.
My job is to prevent crime - not deal with the aftermath Inspector Talbot Thrush.
"Between 2005 to 2006 we had 50 glass-related assaults in licensed premises - and 50% of those were in the city centre where we have 40 licensed premises within half a square mile," he said.
"If we go polycarbonate we can virtually guarantee that won't happen again."
Thrush denied that a blanket ban was against the spirit of the Licensing Act, which demands conditions be tailored to individual premises.
"One of the goals of the Licensing Act is to reduce crime and disorder," he said.
Police want premises within the alcohol-free designation zone, where no alcohol can be consumed on the streets, to switch to polycarbonate between 6pm and 8pm, but cannot force them to do so.
"I would be much more likely to go for a review if there were subsequent glass-related incidents. My job is to prevent crime - not deal with the aftermath," he said.
Pubwatch secretary and owner of the Greyhound pub and Clubnite club John Pisani has already started to make the switch to polycarbonate.
"If it stops just one person being injured, it has to be worth it," he said.
However JD Wetherspoon, (JDW) which has two venues in the city centre, said it would not be switching to polycarbonate.
"We have written to the police outlining our concerns and want to meet to discuss other ways of reducing disorder," said operations director Nathan Wall.
"JDW has its own responsible retailing policy and has run pubs for more than 30 years without the need to ban glasses."
To find out about the Morning Advertiser's petition against blanket glass bans visit www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/glassbanOr, to sign our petition visit http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/plasticglass/
