Undercover cops in pubs

Police are to plant under- cover officers in pubs to catch bar staff who serve drunken customers. Licensees in Blackpool have been warned that staff face £80 on-the-spot fines if they are caught supplying alcohol to customers clearly the worse for drink.

The move is part of a general initiative by the police and local council to clean up the Lancashire town's booze-

ridden image. The authorities want to address problems caused by the weekend stag and hen parties that routinely descend on the resort.

Pubs throughout the resort have already been put under covert surveillance, uncovering numerous instances of drunks being served by staff.

Police have stressed that they are targeting staff who serve customers who are "staggering" and those "clearly the worse for drink."

But the decision has concerned members of the Blackpool Pubwatch group, who were told about the proposals when members of the local police Nightsafe team attended a recent meeting.

"It is sometimes hard for staff to challenge customers who they suspect have had too much to drink," said a spokesperson. "This appears to be part of a major police clampdown, which Pubwatch feels could be extended to other trade issues."

Local licensee Dave Daly, president of the National Association of Licensed House Managers (NALHM), queried how police would define exactly what constituted drunken behaviour. "It's often tricky for staff to decide whether a customer has had too much because buying a drink at a bar involves limited conversation and in a busy, noisy pub, customer behaviour can be difficult to spot.

"The condition of people staggering to the bar is obvious, but customers display differing traits under the influence, and sometimes drunkenness is hard to detect."

Bar staff serving underage drinkers are already being targeted by police and trading standards officers across the country in a series of well-publicised "sting"

operations.

staff training key to reducing illegal drinking

Licensees are being urged to give staff clear instructions and training to help them deal with intoxicated customers who to try to buy alcohol. Tony Payne, chief executive of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations, said it was illegal for staff to serve a drunken customer under laws which had prevailed for many years.

"People have to ask what constitutes a drunken person and that is what licensees and bar staff have to decide. Clearly, a customer who is staggering or falls over is drunk, but care has to be taken to ensure the person does not have a disability," he said.

Morning Advertiser legal editor Peter Coulson said the Government's alcohol harm-reduction strategy mainly targeted the serving of underage drinkers through sting operations. "But Blackpool police (see right) appear to have taken this a stage further, which they have every right to do as part of the general aims of tackling drunken behaviour that form part of the strategy," he said.