Clubs escape binge-drinking police bill

The drinks industry will not be taxed to pay for policing city centres blighted by drunken yobs, despite calls for pubs and clubs to foot the bill.

But in a warning to bars and off-licences to stop fuelling the binge-drinking "epidemic", ministers threatened that the worst offenders could be singled out and told to pay.

New government proposals would give councils the power to create Alcohol Disorder Zones in towns with a serious problem caused by alcohol-driven hooliganism.

Pubs, clubs and discos inside the zone would get eight weeks to co-operate with police to calm down the problem including ending cheap drinks promotions and refusing to serve thugs.

If they failed, councils would be allowed to send them the bill for deploying extra police to the area.

The proposals disappointed some critics of the looming relaxation in pub opening hours, which has sparked fears of more Saturday night drunkenness in the streets.

It will take months before detailed plans can be drawn up and it is unclear what will happen if pubs refuse to pay.

But ministers insisted the plan would have enough teeth and claimed it could even be extended to reclaim the cost of street cleaning and hospital bills.

One idea being floated is for the payments to be made a condition of a pub licence meaning it could be closed down for refusing to co-operate.

In other measures put forward:

• Yobs could be banned from their favourite pubs or drinking area for four weeks under a Drinking Banning Order. The "three strikes and you're out" plan would come in where a hooligan was caught offending three times.
• On-the-spot fines could punish bar staff who serve under-age drinkers and be used against young drinkers themselves.

  Fixed penalty fines for staff who serve customers who are already drunk.

• Courts told to stop letting off thugs and criminals who use drunkenness as an excuse for bad behaviour. At present it is a mitigating factor but it will become an aggravating factor.
• Pubs or off-licences that persistently sell drink to under-18s would be shut down for 24 hours at the request of police.

Announcing the moves, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said: "Our current licensing laws are creaking under the strain. That's why we are reforming them - to make our towns and cities safe for all, not a free-for-all."

The new measures are set out in a consultation paper rushed out yesterday after mounting concern among police and the public at the impact of looming 24-hour drinking laws.