Councillor’s second bid for drink licence
Community council move against under-18s boozing
The sight of a teenage girl lying drunk in the middle of a Wishaw street prompted a bid to oppose a local shop receiving a licence to sell booze.
An application to sell alcohol has been re-submitted to the council by shopkeeper, and North Lanarkshire councillor, Shahid Farooq.
A similar application, which was opposed by Coltness Community Council, was thrown out last year.
Community council chairman John Carr confirmed the group would be opposing the proposal this time around and spoke out against underage drinking in the area.
Speaking at the community council meeting earlier this month, Mr Carr said: “If you look at the east of Coltness we have five shops which sell drink so if we have another one that’s six in such a small area.
“We have a real problem here with under-age drinking.
“I saw one girl around 14 years of age in Denholm Drive with a bottle of vodka lying on the road drunk.
“You see a group of youths down there drinking and they don’t even try to hide it now; it’s blatant. “We have plenty of shops there.” Fellow community councillor Tam Nailon also voiced concerns of having so many shops selling alcohol in such a small area.
He added: “There is five shops in one area of Coltness that sell drink but only one the other side.
“If anything we should be trying to cut that number down to two or three rather than having more.
“There is only one shop the other side of Coltness and they have hardly any bother.”
Speaking to the Wishaw Press this week, Councillor Farooq moved to reassure residents that proper security steps would be taken if his store was granted a drinks licence.
He said: “I have already spoken to members of the community council about this.
“We have CCTV outside our store so if youths are congregating outside we will know and we could contact the police accordingly.
“Currently in the shop we have a lot of trade in the morning.
“But it is a lot quieter later on in the day.
“If we had a drinks licence it would mean our customers would be able to get all of their groceries in our store.”
I saw one girl around 14 years of age with a bottle of vodka lying on the road drunk . . .