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| Issued By Cumbria County Council |
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| Issued By Cumbria County Council |
CRACKDOWN ON SALE OF ALCOHOL TO UNDER AGE TEENAGERS
A
survey recently carried out by Cumbria Trading Standards found that 22% of off
licences visited sold alcopops to teenagers under 18.
The
survey, carried out in West Cumbria and the Barrow and Kendal areas, found that
10 of the 46 shops visited sold the alcoholic drinks to the one 16-year-old boy
and three 13/14-year-old girls, who were acting under the instructions of the
Trading Standards department. In West Cumbria 67% of shops visited sold the
drinks to the youngster, in Barrow it was 5%, Kendal 8% and in the Windermere/Ambleside
33%.
County
Councillor Jack Richardson, County Council spokesman for community safety, said:
“Misuse of alcohol by teenagers is a serious problem in this country. Figures
from Health Promotion England show that nationally 1000 children aged 15 and
under are admitted to hospital each year with acute alcohol poisoning. Community
safety audits show that people are increasingly concerned at nuisance caused by
teenagers, often fuelled by drink. This work by Trading Standards is one way in
which we can try to tackle this problem and shows that there is a real need for
licensees to play their part. If 36 licensees weren’t taken in, the other 10
don’t have much excuse.”
In
the build up to the survey, Trading Standards produced a leaflet for businesses
setting out the law on selling alcohol to young people under the age of 18. This
leaflet was sent or hand delivered to 150 off licences in the areas to be
surveyed. All 46 shops involved in the survey had been sent or given a copy of
the leaflet.
Phil
Ahcroft, head of Cumbria Trading Standards, explained that this was a new area
of work for the department. He says: “Government gave us a duty to enforce
this legislation in December 2001 and, working together with the police, this
has proved to be the right approach.
“This time, all the shops that sold alcohol will be visited and given a warning. We will now be sending or delivering our leaflet to all the off-licences in the county and reminding licensees of their responsibility during our normal inspections. All licensees should take this exercise as a warning. Next time we are likely to prosecute.
Bellow is a picture of some Alcopops:
Notes
for Editors: