Safer drinking campaign launched in Newbury
As part of Operation Drinksafe and Newbury Pubwatch, a partnership between Trading Standards, Thames Valley Police and NHS Berkshire, pub staff will wear t-shirts emblazoned with the ‘we serve drinks not drunks’ slogan.
The campaign has been held over summer months in recent years and was re-launched on Monday hoping to cut crime and disorder, excessive drinking, and underage purchasing and drinking.
PC Pete Sutherland of the Newbury town centre neighbourhood police team said: “The idea is to give a clear consistent message that drunks will not be served and to reduce the number of incidents of disorder and anti-social behaviour linked to people getting drunk.”
Newbury Pubwatch has also introduced the concept of a warning letter which is hand delivered when an individual has been involved in a a drink-related incident.
The chairman of the pubwatch scheme, Jon Houston, said: “Communication between the town's venues has greatly improved making the 'barred from one, barred form all' strategy very successful, people are realising that if they behave irresponsibly, there's a chance they could they could be facing a ban from the town centre venues.
"I'm happy to say that the number of people put forward for Pubwatch bans has greatly decreased over the last six months, which is a really positive sign.”
Operation Drinksafe Berkshire came into force in 2008 and this summer campaign will run from June to August through Euro 2012 and the Olympics.