BBPA: ADZs a dog's breakfast of a law
The trade has hit back at suggestions that Alcohol Disorder Zones (ADZ) are the answer to the nation's binge drinking problems.
The Daily Mail today highlighted the fact that not a single ADZ had been put in place since the controversial powers became available in 2006.
Under an ADZ, pubs would have eight weeks to get their houses in order or face running up huge bills to pay for extra policing, street cleaning and accident and emergency services.
ADZs were largely seen as a "knee-jerk" response to the Government's growing discomfort over licensing reform, fuelled by the myth of 24-hour drinking being pedalled by the Daily Mail.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling told the paper: "Labour's 24-hour binge-drinking culture has been causing real misery in towns and cities up and down the country, yet despite all the rhetoric and all the headline-grabbing announcements it's now clear they have done very little to tackle the problem."
But British Beer and Pub Association director of communications Mark Hastings said: "This is no surprise to us. We always said that the ADZ legislation was a complete dog's breakfast that no one wanted.
"The police, local authorities always maintained the scheme was impractical and unworkable, and that is why no one has been tempted to go ahead.
"Councils especially, don't want to advertise themselves as a magnet for disorder. This is a lesson in the dangers of soundbite politics and supports our consistent argument that the political obsession with piling on new laws is not the answer.
"Not only does it frequently produce bad law, but gets in the way of the consistent enforcement of existing law.
"The rigorous enforcement of the licensing laws have all the remedies we need to tackle problem drinkers and venues. It's a shame the ADZ idea ever made it through Parliament."
According to the Daily Mail, only 160 penalty notices have been dished out for serving a drunk person since 2005.
