Alcohol plan aims to reduce £136m damage

YOUR views are needed to help tackle the damage excessive alcohol consumption has on health and the community.

Cheshire East Council, NHS organisations including GPs and Macclesfield Hospital and the county’s emergency services estimate the cost of dealing with alcohol related harm is more than £136 million a year.

There is also increasing numbers of people being treated or admitted to hospital for alcohol related illness and more and more violent incidents where alcohol was involved.

To combat this, the council is hatching a plan to try and reduce levels of consumption over the next three years and promote safe, sensible and social drinking.

It has launched a public consultation, which runs until October 3, to get your views on what it proposes to do about the problems in terms of pre- vention, protection, treatment, recovery and control.

Macclesfield is one of the worst areas of the country when it comes to binge drinking and alcohol-related hospital admissions.

Six council wards – Broken Cross and Upton, South, Central, East, Hurdsfield and Bollington – are in the highest 20 per cent of wards nationally for binge drinking, while five council wards – West and Ivy, South, Central, East and Hurdsfield – have some of the highest levels of admissions to hospital for alcohol-related illnesses.

Councillor Paul Bates, cabinet member for communities and health, said: “Our public health team do outstanding work in educating residents about the health risks associated with the excessive consumption of alcohol but the time is right to take a more focused approach.

“We are committed to putting residents first and welcome views on our plan to tackle alcohol related harm in the borough.

“It is vitally important that we approach this in a co-ordinated manner in order that we can tackle this issue directly.”

The Alcohol Harm Reduction plan is now in its final draft and will be published later this year.

It has involved research using Public Health figures, and surveys of children’s attitudes to alcohol, substance misuse and test purchasing with underage volunteers.

To have your say fill in the council’s questionnaire via http://surveys. cheshireeast. gov. uk/ s/ AlcoholHarmReductionStatement.

‘It is vital that we approach this in a co-ordinated manner’