Alcohol ban reduces drunken behaviour

Drink-fuelled yobbish behaviour has been cut by 10 per cent in Brierley Hill High Street following the introduction of an alcohol ban, despite police making only one arrest.

Problems of drunks loitering in the High Street and causing a nuisance led to the ban being brought in last May, giving police power to seize drink and arrest those who refused to hand it over.

Police said today they have made 147 seizures of drink in the first five months since the exclusion came into force and one arrest to date.

Inspector Simon Bradbury, from Brierley Hill, says the ban has tackled the problem of a hardcore of a dozen drunks in their 40s and 50s gathering in the High Street causing a nuisance.

He said: "It was brought about because of concerns involving groups of males hanging about.

They were begging, committing petty crime and theft to fund their alcohol habit."We had an increase in calls prior to the ban from shoppers and traders and the problem was giving Brierley Hill and Brockmoor a poor image.

"There is no longer an eyesore in Brierley High Street where the drunks used to congregate by the library.

"There has been one arrest and this shows most, if not all, are complying with the request to hand over alcohol and this is used as a last resort."

Overall the number of complaints about alcohol-related nuisance in the area covered by the ban has gone up from 71 incidents in the 10 months prior to the ban to 76 in the 10 months following its introduction.

Insp Bradbury said officers have tried to steer those with problems to sources of help but none was willing to participate.There are also alcohol bans in Dudley, Sedgley, Stourbridge and Halesowen town centres.