Alcohol orders are removed by council

CRIME: Orders that allowed police and the council to confiscate alcohol consumed on the streets of York plagued by drink problems have been removed after not a single incident was recorded in three years.

ENFORCEMENT ORDERS that allowed police and council staff to confiscate alcohol being consumed on the streets of a Yorkshire city plagued by drinkfuelled problems have been removed after not a single incident was recorded in three years.

York Council has removed the designated public place orders (DPPOs) covering eight areas in Cleveland Street, Clifton Moor Community Church, Glen Gardens, Poppleton Community Centre, Rawcliffe and Clifton Library, Rawcliffe Lake, Salisbury Terrace and Woodthorpe Green, after measures to tackle alcohol-related anti-social behaviour were put in place in 2012.

Across the city, efforts to tackle binge-drinking, the plethora of stag and hen parties and related crime and anti-social behaviour have seen a 36 per cent drop in reports of alcohol-related incidents from 2013/14 to 2016/17.

The move to re-assess all enforcement areas was prompted by a change in legislation, due next month, that will see DPPOs replaced by public space protection orders which give police and council officers discretionary powers to require people to stop drinking and to confiscate alcohol in designated public places. The remaining enforcement orders, including those within the city walls and the railway station, will be updated to PSPOs.

The executive member for housing and safer neighbourhoods, Coun Sam Lisle, said: “The council, together with the police, reviewed all the existing DPPOs. We’re not allowed to just had them in place in perpetuity there has to be a reason for them - so with no incidents in three years the decision was made to remove them.

“One thing has to be clear, however, it does not mean that we don’t have an issue with drunken behaviour or anti-social behaviour, just that the measures we have in place have been working.”