East Lothian Courier | News | Pubwatch pending

Monday, 8th September, 2008

Published: Thursday, 10th July, 2008 08:00

Pubwatch pending

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TOWN centre pubs look set to pool their resources and share information through a dedicated forum in a bid to help police curb drink-fuelled anti-social behaviour.

Bars in High Street and the harbour area have agreed to meet up regularly to exchange details of nuisance customers and underage drinkers, which could lead to a united front against alcohol-related, unruly behaviour in the town.

The ‘Pubwatch’ scheme has been born out of the local off-sales forum which met for the second time on June 24 at Hallhill Healthy Living Centre.

After a disappointing turnout at the inaugural session, police revealed that the most recent discussions were “much better attended and very positive”.

Ten Dunbar off-sales licensees have signed up to the pilot East Lothian Off-Sales Initiative which aims to shore up links between licence-holders, police and the council through a dedicated forum.

Licensed stores will be encouraged to record details of dubious sales including descriptions of perpetrators. This information will then be shared with police and fellow off-licence owners.

Licensees are even asked to record examples where adults buy low-cost alcohol at odds with their other purchases.

Once the pub forum is up and running it is expected that information about dubious customers will be circulated among participating bars and off-sales outlets.

PC Bob Leslie described the new programme as a “powerful tool” and said it would yield positive results but warned that success would be hard to quantify.

He said: “This will slowly float off the ground, it will not take off like a rocket – it’s a gradual process that will take time to develop.

“The pubs will meet on a basis decided by themselves and discuss the difficulties they are facing. If there are individuals consistently causing problems in the area they could face action from all the licensed premises in the town.”

He added: “When the ‘pubwatch’ is formally set up there can be communication between the two groups.”

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