Mulled wine off limits at town’s festive market

MULLED wine has been banned from a council’s Christmas market over fears it could encourage street drinking.

A trader has been banned from selling the seasonal tipple below a town’s festive lights, branding the authority as “anti-christmas”.

Glenn Davison applied for a temporary licence to serve the festive drink from his pop-up stall at the event in Castleford, West Yorkshire, last week.

But Wakefield council blocked the bid over concerns about street drinkers taking advantage of the sale.

“I don’t think street drinkers will be interested in the mulled wine I’m selling,” Mr Davison told the BBC. “[It] is very weak. It’s about 2 per cent, so you’d have to drink about six glasses to feel any effect.”

Parts of the town centre are covered by a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), that was put in place in 2017 to stop anti-social behaviour related to street drinking. The order allows police to issue fines and seize alcohol.

At a licensing hearing on Friday, police said the stall would be too close to where the PSPO is in force, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

Mr Davison, from Hull, a former winner of reality TV show Come Dine With Me, said he will still be at the event selling non-alcoholic mulled wine.