Troublemakers to be put on website

Licensees in Norfolk have launched a website to show photographs of people who have been aggressive on licensed premises.

The initiative is part of the Great Yarmouth Nightsafe campaign and is aimed at reducing violent behaviour in pubs and clubs. It is supported by the Norfolk Constabulary and partly funded by the Home Office under the Alcohol Related Partnership Activity campaign.

As part of the new scheme, licensees will be able to ban violent drunks from their pubs and alert fellow members by placing a photograph of the person on the website.

The troublemaker is then automatically banned from all member pubs and clubs. After six months the photograph is removed if the person has not caused any more trouble.

According to Mike Butcher, licensee of the Longbar in Great Yarmouth and chairman of Great Yarmouth Nightsafe, 13 licensees have signed up to the website but he hopes that all bars and clubs in the area will soon join the scheme.

"The launch of the Great Yarmouth Borough Nightsafe is probably the most exiting crime reduction initiative since the introduction of CCTV to our town," he said.

He added he hoped supermarkets would also become involved with the scheme to stop rowdy people from pre-loading at home before venturing into pubs. "We want to highlight the fact that launching the scheme for pubs and clubs is only the tip of the iceberg. People can drink so much at home because of supermarkets and then they turn up at night venues and cause problems."

John Burroughs, licensee of the Apollo Tavern in Great Yarmouth, said the website would act as a strong deterrent to unruly customers. "We all occasionally get someone who is a bit of a nuisance and this will send a message to troublemakers that if you get banned from one pub you will be barred from all of the pubs in the area."

It is hoped that if the scheme is successful it will be launched nationwide.