City of York Council have announced that an Alcohol Restriction Zone will be in place in York city centre from tomorrow under plans to tackle drink-fuelled disorder in the city.
The Restriction zone, also known as a Designated Public Place Order, encompasses the entire confines of the city walls and the train station. The move reorganises 20 existing no-alcohol zones into a single larger one.
Anyone seen in possession of alcohol and believed to be reasonably drunk, can have their drinks confiscated and poured away by police. There is also the possibility of fines for those in possession of alcohol within the zone and repeat offenders could face arrest.
YUSU President Kallum Taylor said via a YUSU Blog: ” If you want to make sure you don’t have to fork out a hefty fine for drinking your can on the way in, finish them well BEFORE you go anywhere near the city centre or train station, and do NOT take any alcohol out of a pub, bar or club.”
The move has been welcomed my multiple groups including York Hospital, North Yorkshire Police, British Transport Police and York’s Street Angels.
Vanbrugh JCRC Chair Michael Duncan said of the move: “Whilst most students probably won’t be particularly happy about not being able to drink on their way into town, any measure that makes the city centre a safer place for students at night is probably a good thing. Whether this measure actually has that effect, though, remains to be seen.”
Halifax CSA Chair Loussin Pilikian also commented: “I feel sad that arz in Yorkshire was inpspired by reducing money to small off licence businesses and increasing money to bars and clubs as opposed to the recent events in york concerning the young adults and students that have gone missing.
The unanimous vote was ratified by Full Council on Thursday.
There is nothing in this article that hasn’t come from the blog and comments on kallums news feed. Read the actual policy and you get a story. For example yusu wasn’t consulted and of those consulted “The council consulted over 50 organisations/individuals as part of the consultation process (see Annex 2 for list of consultees), and every licensed premises within the authorities area. One response was received to the consultation; however the issues raised were not related to the questions asked as part of the consultation.”
bollocks.
I don’t agree with the ARZ, but just to be clear, this isn’t a ban on drinking in the city centre. The police are empowered to confiscate drink and can issue fines if people are being drunk and disorderly, and will only issue fines if people refuse to cooperate. More info here: http://democracy.york.gov.uk/(S(vm2jryv2bb4a1b55jhhfq1qp))/documents/s87056/DPPO%20ARZ%20Report.pdf
Also worth pointing out YUSU were actually consulted – as the document above the consultation was sent to all members of the Alcohol, Violence and Night Time Economy Task Group.
@Factoid
Not quite right. If you were referring to subsection 2, it means that you can have alcohol confiscate on private premises if there is reason to believe that you have been causing nuisance in a public place (as defined in the document) or if you were consuming that alcohol in a public place.
It’s not really news anyway as there have always been ARZ within York city walls, all this change does is merge existing ARZ into a single area (and possibly covers a few gaps that weren’t previously covered)
Generally speaking if you’re drinking on the way to town, if you ditch your drink before you cross the road that encircles the walls then you won’t have any problems.
@Been here too many years
Apart from the fact that the document clearly refers to public not private places, I’m not actually sure where you’re disagreeing?