ADZ's slammed by trade and local authorities

Industry leaders and local authorities have slammed Alcohol Disorder Zones (ADZ), because they would bring further decline to an area.

Local authorities are able to designate ADZs as the part of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, where there is nuisance, disorder or annoyance associated with the consumption of alcohol in the area.

However Patrick Crowley, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea licensing team manager, has spoken out against them claiming that local authorities had no intention of introducing them.

He said: "If our council had an ADZ in Kensington and Chelsea, I know if I was 17, 18 or 19 I'd head for it, I think the name is wrong, never mind anything else. "

Martin Rawlings, British Beer & Pub Association's director of pub and leisure, said he agreed with Crowley and was worried that police would see the measure as a way of making money.

"I am very pleased to hear local authorities have done nothing. Some of the police I think are more keen and do see it as a way of raising funds, possibly they don't know what it is."

He added that spending £10,000 a week on an ADZ was a waste of money, and that Business Improvement Districts, a voluntary agreement among businesses to improve an area, was a better approach.

Lionel Starling, Swindon Borough Council licensing manager, also agreed that ADZs could be damaging.

"The notion that we can't tell who is guilty so we'll punish all of you, I find recumbent," he said. "I certainly agree with my colleague Pat. You're just going to create a zone in which there's a decline. The problem will get worse, not better."

They were speaking at a licensing law conference in London run by IBC.