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WALTHAM FOREST: Borough is an "alcohol blackspot"

11:51am Friday 2nd January 2009 in


WALTHAM Forest is one of eleven London boroughs to receive a slice of a £1.5million fund aimed at reducing alcohol-related crime and disorder.

Deemed an “alcohol blackspot” the borough will be given £30,000 from the new Home Office fund to tackle problems such as the sale of alcohol to under-18s and drunk and rowdy behaviour.

Cabinet member for community safety, enforcement and protection Cllr Afzal Akram said: "External funding is always welcome and the money will be used to strengthen our stance against underage alcohol sales as well as improving our licensing and enforcement operations."

The money will be made available to 50 priority areas, of which Waltham Forest is 46th, with the highest levels of alcohol-related crime and disorder, as well as the highest levels public concern about the problem.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State responsible for crime reduction Alan Campbell said: “I fully expect this will boost the drive against alcohol-related crime and disorder, and help reduce alcohol related problems in London.”

According to the North West Public Health Observatory's Local Alcohol Profile for the local authority, Waltham Forest is rated “significantly worse” than the national average for hospital admissions for alcohol-related harm and alcohol-related crimes.

Comments(10)

Baffled says...
1:20pm Fri 2 Jan 09

Close down Lincoln's. Close down Zulus. Close Down O'Neill's. Sorted.

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jrp says...
2:09pm Fri 2 Jan 09

Don't think the pubs are really the problem, it's the fact that every other corner shop sells booze and really does not care who they sell it to.

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Touchwood says...
2:21pm Fri 2 Jan 09

More money to disappear into the corrupt corridors of the Town Hall!!

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Technomist says...
2:46pm Fri 2 Jan 09

It is a gross waste of public money, designed only to buy headlines in local papers for the Labour Party. £30,000 will pay for less than a packet of breath mints per person in the Borough.

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dissenter 2008 says...
6:08pm Fri 2 Jan 09

jrp wrote:
Don't think the pubs are really the problem, it's the fact that every other corner shop sells booze and really does not care who they sell it to.
is the correct answer !!!!!!!!

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Earle Martin says...
6:29pm Sun 4 Jan 09

Will the Council then stop accepting alcohol advertising on the signboards it has built on the pavement all over the borough?

Baffled - I would say close O'Neills and Lincolns and turn Zulus back into a respectable venue from the antisocial hellhole it currently exists as.

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Bert Small says...
10:54am Mon 5 Jan 09

Poppycock!

In the old days off-sales for alcohol were made at Pubs, properly regulated and not from fly-by-night shops, the proprietors of which can hardly speak English let alone ask kids their age.

Go to an average Licensing Sessions and be entertained whilst highly paid lawyers 'guide' their foreign clients through the requisite questions to be answered. It is hilarious!

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Baffled says...
1:45pm Tue 6 Jan 09

Bert - cobblers. How long ago were your "old days"? There's nothing new about the Off Licence - and most of the trouble associated with alcohol isn't caused by the under age anyway. The idiots punching each other on every high street haven't been sat in Mr Patel's corner shop swigging Stella - they've been in 'vertical drinking' bars and clubs. There needs to be a sea change in Britain's attitude to alcohol - the problem is made up of umpteen different facets, each which needs to be addressed. The fact is that in the last ten or so years we've come out of an era of relative moderation that was first brought about by the WW1 licencing laws. This is a country with a long, long history of binge drinking - have a look at Hogarth's Gin Lane. Frederick Charrington became a temperance reformer after being horrified by the sheer number of fighting drunks he saw in the pubs owned by his brewing family. It ain't a new thing.

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Bert Small says...
4:58pm Tue 6 Jan 09

The idiots punching each other on every high street haven't been sat in Mr Patel's corner shop swigging Stella

They certainly are as well as the bars!

6 cans for a fiver in every 'continental supermarket'.

How do they sell it so cheap and as cheap or cheaper than say Tesco? It is all bought over from abroad without the duty and long established cornershop owners will tell you this.

It is too freely available and if we adopted the Swedish attitude to booze (it is sold without the fanfare and offers) and limited who got a licence, things would be better.

I was on a bus last night when three yobs got on openly drinking from cans and caused havoc.

Bus driver let them on without a word. What happened to the alcohol ban on public transport?

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Baffled says...
10:55am Wed 7 Jan 09

There is a limit on who gets a licence. Under the Premises Licence Act In order to sell alcohol, there needs to be a 'designated premises supervisor', typically the owner of the shop. They are responsible for who gets to buy the booze. If you know of the law being broken - and I'm sure you do, because you know everything - tell the Police.

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