As a chap who likes a tipple and who doesn't find himself causing mayhem just because I've had what these days is a very occasional skin full, I am not entirely sure how much I approve of a total ban on booze in the High Street. Luckily, it seems that the council is mainly concerned about the problems caused by the special brew brigade who lurk about in the Town Square.
The police are being given powers to hand out on the spot fines of up to ₤50 for public drinkers, which is not something which I suspect it is going to be possible to levy in full on many of the derelicts who have been known to make the trip to the cash-points up near the NatWest bank intimidating for timid folk. More likely they will be requiring people to hand over their booze or face arrest. That is, of course, if the police are there to spot them, which is another story altogether.
The ban has been endorsed by James O'Rourke, a local High Street councillor, and who pops up as the occupant of a rather large bit of the front page in tomorrow's Yellow Advertiser which has just dropped through my letterbox. I am pleased to see even though he's been fighting for the ban for some time, he can't quite bring himself to waste the unopened can of Carlsburg he is posing with in the photo.
It will be interesting to see how the rather gung ho sounding 'Alcohol Restriction Zone' works out in practice. Father Jack Hackett would have had a word or two to say about those initials.
playwrite27
They are talking about a similar ban in my little city--aimmed at keeping boozers from causing a nuisence in the city's bar district--strictly a bad, though, on drinking alcohol outside on the street, and won't effect drinkers inside bars, or sitting at sidewalk tables outside the local pubs and restuaruants.
I personally, don't think it's a bad thing--for my city. My and other's view here, is: if someone has to drink so bad, that they have to walk around with a bottle, then they probably are not exactly upstanding citizens-- (at least where I live, I know the UK is entirely different in their views and standards towards excess drinking). Most people where I live, do their drinking in bars, resturants or at home, and it's only the teenage reprobates, drink drivers and alkies that do that, anyway. (Not that I'm in anyway saying anything against heavy drinkers, mind you--just the one's that make a nuisence of themselves.)