Pub last orders could soon be soft drinks only Sensation Line Fitness

Pub last orders could soon be soft drinks only

August 4th, 2010 Tyson Flood Leave a comment Go to comments

Bars could be forced to sell only soft drinks in the hour before they close and put health warnings on cocktails in order to help tackle Glasgow’s drink problem.

The winding-down plan, and using local statistics on alcohol-related brain damage when deciding if an area has too many licensed premises, are among the measures being adopted and recommended to address the city’s alcohol abuse.

Glasgow City Council will next week adopt its health impact assessment, the first report of its kind commissioned in Scotland, and use it as the foundation of its new policy on licensing issues to be completed by the end of the year.

Billed as “decidedly not a prohibitionist manifesto”, the report is the first attempt to find tangible ways of upholding a central plank of Scotland’s new liquor laws, the legislation requiring licensing boards to “promote and protect public health”.

By the end of the year, Scotland’s 40-plus licensing boards are legally required to have local policies that address health issues.

Our city’s relationship with alcohol, like so much of our behaviour under its influence, has veered out of control.

health impact assessment report

The report claims more action needs to be taken in areas such as availability, price and access to alcohol, adding that dialogue is needed with the major supermarkets to discourage below-cost selling and stem the practice of binge-drinking at home.

According to the study, alcohol consumption and its damaging effects have increased sharply in Glasgow since the early 1990s. The main reasons cited are a combination of increased affordability and an apparent social acceptability of drinking alcohol to excess.

The objective of protecting and improving public health has so far presented licensing boards and the trade across Scotland with significant difficulties, with even senior medical professionals with an expertise in alcohol admitting to The Herald last year they were struggling to see how it could be used.

Glasgow itself recently made a ham-fisted attempt to uphold the objectives by banning supermarkets from increasing their alcohol display areas, but U-turned amid fears of costly legal action and then blamed the Scottish Government for failing to provide guidance on how health objectives could be used to deny licences.

Among the recommendations are preventing any “creep” towards late hours due to the impact on communities, particularly in relation to noise, an obligation to provide substantial breakfasts with early alcohol sales, and raising awareness of and enforcement of the existing law about the sale of alcohol to drunk people – to reduce public acceptance of the practice – and existing laws around being drunk and incapable, including being drunk in charge of a child.

When assessing the “overprovision” of licensed premises, all types of businesses should be included, such as supermarkets, while the board’s assessment should be made using expert local health, crime and community safety data including alcohol-related emergency hospital admissions, alcohol-related deaths, alcohol-related brain damage and community addiction team caseloads.

“Strong positive reasons” would be also needed for awarding more licences.

It also calls for alcohol unit content information on all drinks, including cocktails.

However, some of the 60-plus recommendations are, at best, unlikely, with one claiming “the potential should be explored for the trial of a ‘winding down’ hour in the run-up to closing, where only non-alcoholic drinks are available’.

The report concludes: “This is decidedly not a prohibitionist manifesto. Alcohol is part of our culture and the licensed trade is part of our economy. But we cannot let things carry on the way they are. Our city’s relationship with alcohol, like so much of our behaviour under its influence, has veered out of control.”

Sensation Line Fitness