Binge drinking affects Police in Preston

Binge drinking is causing a huge problem for the police right across the country and for Preston.

Most post police officers would express their frustrations in many ways as the police are looked upon to solve these problems when in fact they are social problems left for the police to deal with.

Andy Bradbury, , said: "Certainly I can talk in terms what goes on in Thursdays , Fridays and Saturdays evenings. There’s a great deal of police time taken in managing the effects and after effects of alcohol.

"We need to look at why children and young people in France, Spain for example are far more responsible in the way they use alcohol. In this country when we have 18th or 21st birthdays where the situation is based around drinking to get drunk rather than a more relaxed social attitude towards alcohol and socialising."


Andy said that the message to young people binge drinking having a potentially detrimental impact on young people’s heath is clear, however it’s hard to get the message across because of an attitude of them feeling immune from any health problems which may appear later on in life as a result of binging.

Police are faced with two groups of binge drinkers, and national health statistics confirm this with over 160 youths under the age of 16 being admitted A&Es across Lancashire and over 3,500 people over the age of 18 being hospitalised due to excessive alcohol intake.

Andy said: "As a police force, we’re dealing with three groups here. Teenagers from 13 upwards to maybe 17 who drink alcohol in public places, to the second group who are young people and students aged 18 to early 20s who often fall victim to crime and are vulnerable to injury and attacks on the way home from a night out."

A major factor in Preston, as with many other similar cities, is the catchment areas of takeaways and food outlets placed around the high density of clubs and bars on Church street. The police have to deal with alcohol fuelled fights caused by the lack of queing structure and are working with the many takeaways and food outlets to redress this issue.

Andy said supermarkets and cheaply priced drinks are often blamed for causing prices of drinks to plummet, with bars and clubs offering promotions and happy hours in competition.
“We work very closely with pubs and clubs who are generally responsible buy I think the problem they face Is the one of competitive nature of supermarkets and off licenses selling cheaper alcohol. A lot of pubs and clubs are seeing people coming into their premises having gotten drunk of cheap alcohol from super markets and are having to face closure,” he said.

“We quite readily accept that if you’re talking about a football ground which requires policing because of the entertainment they present, football grounds are expected to make a contribution towards the cost of policing the problem,” Andy added.

The cause isn’t true of clubs and pubs making contributions towards the extraneous cost and stretch of the police forces. Diverted police attention often sees serious crimes such as burglaries and muggings having to wait. Andy said that this problem is costing the tax payer in Preston alone in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds a year.