Agenda item

The Corporate Manager Democratic & Legal Services to advise on the possibility of the Council making its own byelaw banning street drinking in certain areas of the district.

The Scrutiny Officer introduced the Corporate Manager Democratic & Legal Services who had been invited to the Panel meeting to give the legal position with regard to making byelaws banning street drinking following the work carried out by the street drinking working group.

The Corporate Manager Democratic and Legal Services advised the Panel on the general legal position with regard to the making of byelaws.   He said that there was not a byelaw, which banned street drinking, and therefore other acts of Parliament had to be looked at such as the general local government acts.  The Home Office issued model guidance about the making of byelaws but there was a problem in that no specific guidance concerning the banning of street drinking had been drafted and any departure from the model byelaw guidance could lead to problems especially as the Home Office and Government had to approve any byelaw made.  The new Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 would be changing the law quite dramatically and if the Council did manage to pass a byelaw concerning street drinking, by October 2006 the byelaw would no longer be enforceable as the new act changes the whole process and byelaw enforcement.

After October 2006 there will be new procedures concerning banning street drinking in designated areas with the primary duty resting on the police as they will be the enforcement body.

One member of the panel disagreed with the Corporate Manager Democratic and Legal Services indicating places that had already imposed bans such as Peterborough City Council.  The Community Support Officers were also due to be getting more powers to search people under the age of 18 for drink if they suspected them of carrying alcohol on their person.

The Corporate Manager Democratic and Legal Services indicated that orders were starting to come forward concerning banning street drinking in designated areas but three quarters of the orders failed at the last hurdle which was enforcement which had to be carried out by the police.  One member asked if the Town Council could make byelaws but the Corporate Manager Democratic and Legal Services said that their powers were more limited than the District Councils and stressed that the police needed to be onboard if any designated area to ban street drinking was to be made.

A general discussion then ensued with members discussing the selling of alcohol by supermarkets and the drinking carried out in the meadows in Stamford and the lack of police resources.  The Scrutiny Officer indicated that the working group had primarily focused on St Peter’s Hill, Grantham and perhaps they needed to do more work with regard to Stamford and invite the Community Support Officer and the Anti Social Behaviour Officer to a future meeting.

The Portfolio Holder responsible for community safety referred to the proposed changes concerning the police and informed the panel that ODPM had said that 59 new Community Police Support Officers units would be deployed in the country, however he could not say if any would be deployed in Lincolnshire but he stressed that the District Council needed to keep close partnership working with the police.