Knowsley Pioneers Safe Drinking

Knowsley’s crime and disorder strategy has won praise from the Home Office. This has led to an invitation from the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) for Knowsley to pilot their social responsibility initiative, one of only six local authorities across the country to do so.

Paul McHugh, Knowsley’s community safety partnership liaison officer, explained, “The BII have asked us to provide tips for licensees to strengthen their links with their local communities and help them help join in the fight against crime and disorder. Prescot has a well-established ‘pub watch’ to stop crime in and around pubs in the town and a ‘liquor link’ scheme that protects off-licences through a ring-around system.”

“This has been such a success that we are now expanding Pub Watch throughout the borough and piloting drug awareness sessions for landlords, showing them the signs to look for to prevent drug use and dealing on their premises. We hope to have other courses available for licensees, such as anger and stress management, employment and liquor licensing law awareness sessions.

Operation ‘Crystal Clear 2000’ has been a great success in Knowsley, with all licensees becoming involved in attempting to reduce the number of bottle and glass related injuries over the Christmas and Millennium celebrations. In Knowsley, we will be running the operation throughout the summer months, in a bid to ensure that ‘on-street’ drinking is kept to a minimum, and care is taken over the disposal of glasses and bottles.

“Bootleg beer getting into the hands of teenagers is another problem that we will continue to tackle with the assistance of Customs and Excise officers, and licensees can help us put a stop to this by providing information about suppliers to the police. By working in partnership with local landlords, we aim to give them confidence to help combat crime in our communities.”