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Councils sign up to Boris alcohol ban on under-21s
Danny Brierley, Evening Standard18.07.08
A ban on selling alcohol to young adults looks set to be rolled out across London after councils gave their backing to the groundbreaking anti-binge drinking plan.
Authorities across the capital revealed plans to consider asking offlicences to stop selling alcoholic drinks to people under 21.
The scheme is to be tested in Croydon,where shops will be asked not to sell alcohol to 18 to 21-year-olds, even though they are legally entitled to.
Today more councils came out in support of the plan, including Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster and Ealing.
Some are meeting police imminently in a move to introduce the new scheme, backed by Mayor Boris Johnson.
Ealing council leader Jason Stacey said his borough was fully supporting the scheme. He told the Standard: "It is a great idea and we hope as many off-licences as possible sign up to the scheme. I hope it will reduce bingedrinking among teenagers."
Daniel Astaire, Westminster council ' s community protection spokesman, said: "We take binge drinking very seriously and welcome innovative ideas to deal with this serious social problem.
"We have pioneered our own voluntary-agreement with supermarkets and off- licences in parts of Westminster which are prone to anti-social behaviour.
"The indiscriminate sale of alcohol which blights towns and cities across the country must end, and that applies to both the age of people being served and the type of alcohol. We all need to address the very real social problems which alcohol causes and contributes to, and the industry must play its part in helping to deal with this breakdown in society."
Merrick Cockell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, said: "London needs some fresh thinking on antisocial behaviour and this looks like an idea worth exploring. We'll certainly be talking it through with our local police."
The support came as an official report found hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren were drinking six pints of beer a week. The data from the NHS Information Centre found that one in five 11- to 15-year-olds in England - 640,000 pupils - had drunk alcohol in the past week.
Despite the widespread public concern over binge drinking, Diageo, the world's largest drinks company, dismissed the under-21 sales ban idea as "ill conceived".
In a letter to the Standard the company's managing director, Benet Slay, said: "The fact that an 18-year-old could drink alcohol in a pub, club or restaurant, yet would not be old enough to purchase a bottle of beer and drink it at home is clearly illogical.
"If Mr Johnson wants to 'banish the scourge of binge-drinking' he should look to solutions such as enforcing existing alcohol legislation, intervention schemes for alcohol misuse and wider information campaigns on responsible drinking, including information for children on the dangers of underage drinking.
"He should not adopt a policy that will penalise all responsible adults between the ages 18 and 21."
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Reader views (14)
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I moved to London to experience university, and being one of the younger members of the year I have not long since turned 19, and I rightly feel aggrieved that Boris wants to take away the privileges I have only recently gained.
Boris Johnsson is an absolute fool, I m sure many people who voted in the election must have gone crazy-voting in a bumbling baboon. All he seems to be doing is taking away any past-times and pleasures many people enjoy, yes I can see how taking alcohol away from the tube makes others peoples journeys more 'pleasant' but just the other week I was returning home from a night out, and a man joined the night bus and promptly broke somebody's nose on the service- so surely his 'master plan' has some very large flaws.
Perhaps he could bring in a blanket plan on the whole of the capital, prohibition appeared to work so well in 1920's America.
He shouldn't be wasting his time with alcohol banning, and be championing the thing many people are afraid of; crime, gang crime and youths being stabbed. If he can do this he will earn mine, and many others respect until then the city of London has made a very large mistake appointing this idiot!
- Josh Wheeler, South Tottenham, North London
All this is Boris trying to push his weight around and not looking at long term plans such as structured rehabilitation. It would be interesting to see figures between 18-21 to 22-31. As I believe the difference would be minimal.
- Lewis, pinner
This is a great idea.
Most kids, when they get out of school and are released into the world, when they have alcohol around them, begin to fall into the lifestyle of working 9-5 and then going out on weekends with the intention of drinking instead of meeting people like you're supposed to.
The whole point of going out of your house, is meeting people, increase your chances of survival in the world (contacts) and reproduce (get a woman/man).
Binge drinking in 18-21 year olds has skyrocketed in the last ten years, and they've proved that though they may be considered an adult, they can't control themselves like adults.
I think it would be interesting and better! 18 year olds will actually have to turn to socialising and actually talking to each other instead of drinking. In other countries where people don't drink til 21, a lot more gets done and a lot more sport is played too.
But in the UK, kids try to drink as fast as possible and whenever you ask one what she/he'd rather be doing, they'll answer "get pissed". I'm 19 myself, but I've seen all of this happening day in day out.
People are complaining about having rights taken away from them. They were given the rights, and they abused them. And it's not a minority, It's too many in the country to just ignore the problem. Plus, the body isn't fully developed at 15-18. Livers only mature by 21-25. More so in women where they have less dehydrogenate to get rid of alcohol which is why they have more hangovers
- Carlos, London
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