Market towns 'like wild west'

1:20am Wednesday 15th October 2008

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Changes to licensing laws aimed at creating a "cafe culture" have turned some of Britain's market towns into the "wild west", police said.

The 24 hour drinking laws have pushed booze-fuelled violence later into the early hours and stretched police resources, an officer said.

Simon Reed, vice chairman of the Police Federation, told MPs on the Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee that market towns have suffered most since the introduction of the Licensing Act.

He said: "At times, policing is being really stretched, often in the smaller towns more than in the bigger cities. My impression of many market towns is they are really like the wild west on occasion because they are really stripped of resources."

He said police were now having to deal with two or three closing times rather than one. "All it's done is push closing time further back. We have got closing times at a number of premises which shut at the previous time of 11 or 11.30 and again the same people for 2 o'clock who are leaving other premises," he said.

"All that's happened is we now have two dispersal times and one that goes on until five in the morning."

Town hall leaders told the committee that many revellers were drinking heavily before going out by "pre-loading" in supermarkets and off-licenses.

One council leader said freshers' week binge drinking should be discouraged to prevent alcohol-fuelled deaths. Chris White, chairman of the Local Government Association Culture Tourism and Sport Board, said the death of one student from alcohol poisoning after he drank half a litre of vodka in 20 minutes should be a warning to others. Jason Venezia, 19, a first-year psychology undergraduate from Solihull, West Midlands, bet his friends £40 he could down three- quarters of a bottle in shots but died in his room.

Mr White said: "These freshers weeks which we all thought were a bit of a laugh... well, it isn't a bit of a laugh and we have all got to grow up a bit in this country."

A Home Office spokesman said: "Since the introduction of the Licensing Act in 2003 the average closing time across England and Wales has only increased by around 20 minutes and the volume of crime and disorder has remained stable."