Booze louts get yellow card for World Cup (From Daily Echo)

Drunken louts get yellow card for World Cup in Southampton pubs

5:00pm Tuesday 1st June 2010 in News By Matt Smith, Politics and business reporter

BOOZED up louts face year-long bans from pubs and clubs in Southampton under a yellow card scheme launched today.

Doorstaff and cops will be showing the football style cards to troublemakers in a bid to rid the city centre of drink fuelled disorder.

Offenders who receive two yellow cards in any year will be automatically banned from over 40 drinking venues in the city.

A lookalike of no-nonsense Italian referee Pierluigi Collina will kick off the scheme in time for the World Cup next week. It is being set up by the licensed trade with police backing.

Cards will be issued for drunk and disorderly behaviour, violence and possession and use of drugs in and around city centre venues.

Members of Southampton's city centre pubwatch scheme, known as Licensing Link, will abide by the "banned from one - banned from all" approach.

Names and addresses of offenders and reports of the incidents will be recorded on a database shared by members of the scheme. CCTV images and police mugshots will be used to create a photo gallery of offenders and identify those serving bans. An appeals panel will also be set up.

The Licensing Link has already established a radio link between venues which allows them to warn each other of trouble and direct city patrol and CCTV cameras to violent incidents.

Nighttime economy manager Chris Ceasar said the yellow card scheme would gives the pub watch teeth. And he warned two cards could be issued one single night.

He said: "This is going to hinder a lot of people's social lives.

"There will be a certain element that might look at it and laugh but when they cannot get in to bar or club they will realise the severity."

Inspector Phil Bates, in charge of policing the city centre, told the Echo: "I have visited Brighton and seen people on their knees begging police not to give them a yellow card because they know it means they won't get in anywhere."

Last year Southampton was named the third worst city in the country for alcohol-related violence.

Members of the yellow card scheme

1 90 Degrees
2 Aqua Lounge
3 Avondale
4 Yates
5 Bedfords
6 Bliss club rooms
7 Buddah
8 Clowns
9 Court Jester
10 Edge
11 Encore
12 Fire house
13 Flares
14 FYEO
15 Giddy Bridge
16 Hamptons
17 Hobbit
18 Jesters
19 Joe Da Floes
20 Junk
21 Kaos
22 Kellys
23 La Margarita
24 Leisure World
25 Lennons/Dorchester
26 Level One
27 Oceana
28 Old Fat Cat
29 Orange Rooms/Mono
30 Qua Pasa
31 Reflex
32 Rhino
33 Royal Oak
34 Shooting Star
35 Sobar
36 Soul Cellar
37 Standing Order
38 The Dungeon
39 The Square
40 Yuzu
41 Wahoo
42 Whitehouse