ACS

Conservative Candidate for Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has today called on London’s councils to do more with their powers to crack down on binge drinking and alcohol related violence, and indicated he would ‘name and shame’ those councils who performed badly.

Alcohol related violence is a major problem in town centres across London, with the Mayor’s own figures showing alcohol is implicated in 40% of incidents of violent crime. New figures released yesterday show that violent crime in London has increased by 13.7% over the last eight years.

Councils do have the powers to take action against bars, clubs and off-licences that sell alcohol to under-18s and out of hours. The Licensing Act 2003 allows councils to initiate a review of licenses at any time, and take immediate action to withdraw licences. Councils such as the London Borough of Bexley have taken a pro-active approach and achieved good results – they are now the toughest council in the country. Their initiative led to a 22 per cent drop in violent crime.

Following a meeting with London Councils Chairman Merrick Cockell, and Leader of Bexley Council, Ian Clement, Boris Johnson praised the work of Bexley, and said other councils needed to follow in their footsteps:

“Our town centres are becoming no-go areas every Friday and Saturday night and something needs to be done about this. In addition to getting more police on the streets, we need to tackle the problem at its core and get tough with bars and shops that break the rules. We must make alcohol harder to buy for under-18s in order to tackle the problem of underage drinking and deal with alcohol related violence.

“I am willing to publish league tables, naming and shaming those councils who do not use their new powers to crackdown on this. I will also use my influence as Chair of the MPA to ensure that police officers take a more proactive approach in confiscating alcohol from underage drinkers.”