Blackpool pubs hit in pilot crackdown

Blackpool police say two £80 fixed-penalty notices were issued to bar staff for serving drunks in a pilot crackdown and one outlet was closed for the offence.

Inspector Keith Ogle declined to reveal details of the premises but stressed that police would ask for licence reviews at venues caught serving people who have had too much to drink.

Blackpool is being used as the pilot area to test how a sting targeting sales to drunks would work prior to the Responsible Alcohol Sales Campaign, which lasts until 23 December.

"The local pubwatch was informed police would be coming and members briefed their staff to encourage them to up their game," said Ogle.

He said plain-clothes police would also look for people buying drinks for people who are drunk. Between four and six officers are patrolling venues as part of the campaign, Ogle added.

"We want to change the culture in which licensed premises are a place for people to get drunk."

Meanwhile, a Lib Dem MP is calling on the nation's licensees to campaign against the "mad" drunks sting.

John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley, has submitted an early day motion (EDM) that "questions whether this is a good use of police time and calls for the Home Office to cancel this plan".

"It's just mad," Hemming told the MA.

"It's anti-English. We are not a teetotal nation."

Hemming is urging pubs to write to their MPs asking them to sign the EDM - and to get their customers to do likewise. He said there was nothing stopping people getting drunk at home on alcohol bought from the supermarket.

"It's waste of police resources. No one has a problem with people going down the pub to have a few drinks."

Click on http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/ to view EDM number 410.