Battling the city's booze culture (From Daily Echo)
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Battling the city's booze culture
2:23pm Saturday 10th May 2008 in In Depth reports
SOUTHAMPTON'S new top cop says the city needs a change of culture if it is to ever shake off its title as one of England's worst trouble spots for alcohol-fuelled violence.
Chief Supt Matthew Greening's call came after a study ranked Southampton as the third worst city in the whole of the country for alcohol related violence.
Only Kingston upon Hull, in Yorkshire, and London were more dangerous than Southampton in the Local Alcohol Profiles for England report, compiled by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO).
Southampton was ranked 352 out of 354 local authorities in England and was behind Portsmouth (335), Gosport (315), Isle of Wight (273), Eastleigh (223), Test Valley (158), Winchester (131) and the New Forest (103).
The city was also ranked poorly for alcohol-related sexual offences (350), alcohol-related crimes (347) and alcohol- attributed deaths for men (321).
Chief Supt Greening said: "Where we are on the ranking we could debate that, but I'd rather not get distracted by that and rather accept the fact that we have got too much alcohol-related violence in the city.
"One of the reasons is the size of the night-time economy, another is that we do get a lot of people coming into the city from outside.
Click here to read about plans to calm revellers down with chill-out music
"Underlying all that though is there is something about people seeming to think it's okay to go out and spend what I think are vast amounts of money on vast amounts of alcohol and that's an appropriate way to spend a Friday and Saturday night.
"Whatever we do about management, about people or about the city centre that is still an underlying problem that we've got to get to grips with."
Daniel Dedman, from NWPHO, said Southampton had 14.19 alcohol-fuelled violent crimes per 1,000 people - which more than doubled the national average of 6.87.
The figures are backed up by the fact seven out of every ten people rushed to Southampton General Hospital's emergency department on Friday and Saturday nights were there because of alcohol.
The Safe City Partnership Plan, published by Southampton City Council and Hampshire Constabulary, also revealed the hotspots for city centre crime and disorder were LeisureWorld, Above Bar, Bedford Place and London Road.
Among a raft of possible new measures, the plan recommends diversifying the city centre's nightlife and this could include restricting the number of new drinking venues opening in the future.
Chief Supt Greening said the city must diversify its nightlife and pointed to Oxford Street - one of the city's most popular restaurant strips - as an example.
"I accept that there is probably a bit of an age profile difference, but even so I think it's that kind of a mixed environment that we need to try and create.
"We've got to try and find ways of encouraging more activities, more entertainment and more reasons to go into the city centre rather than just to drink heavily."
Click here to read about thousands of city drinkers being screened for liver disease
He added: "If the city is serious about trying to do something to restrict the problem of late night drinking then it seems to be flying in the face of that if we carry on having more and more premises.
"It's about the right sort of premises, about well-managed places and it's about a much more diverse selection of places that people can go to."
However, Chief Supt Greening said the longterm solution was not so simple and a change of culture at the city's grass-roots level was needed. "It's about the messages we send out about alcohol being an appropriate way to celebrate something, all those messages say if you want to go out and have a good time then get very drunk - and that's just the wrong message.
"We're bringing some young people up in a culture that seems to make it okay for them to go out, get a six-pack, get themselves drunk and misbehave. What is that about?
"Well it's about all sorts of things, it's about the circumstances they are in, it's about the kind of parents they've got, the kind of example set for them and sadly we know some parents actually provide booze for their kids."
The council and police agree the most worrying trend in the city is the easy availability of alcohol in the community for teenagers.
Despite extensive efforts to crack down on the sale of alcohol to underage teens, authorities agree it is in fact adults - including parents - who are plying youngsters with booze.
During a recent half-term blitz on known trouble hotspots, 142 drinks - including five bottles of cider, four bottles of vodka and four bottles of wine - were seized from underage drinkers.
A recent review of the impact of alcohol misuse in the city said the only solution to Southampton's boozing culture was for people to learn how to drink responsibly.
"Arguably there is a limit to the direct powers of local authorities, police and the health service to prevent these trends which are occurring across the country," the report by Chris Hawker, the council's head of strategic development, communities and healthcare, stated.
"However, it is clear that Southampton faces more severe problems than many other areas and all the efforts to date have failed to reduce the impact as much as they have in other areas of the country."
