Another booze advert goes up in Walthamstow High Street. Some people might say this panel is ugly and obstructive, but if it wasn't for the revenue which the Council gets from it, how else could that ALCOHOL RESTRICTION ZONE sign next to it be paid for?
Meanwhile
Drinking in streets and parks will be banned in a fightback against 'Binge Britain'.
Town halls are drafting new laws to introduce the first blanket bans on public drinking applying to entire towns.
Andrew Neather:
What could be nicer than a bottle of wine shared with friends over a picnic in the park on a summer's afternoon? My local south London patch of green, Brockwell Park, is full of such scenes on summer weekends - groups of up to 20 twenty-and thirty-somethings, with kids, buggies circled around the edge of the picnic rugs like a wagon train.
But not for long, it seems: Lambeth council is set to ban alcohol in all public places.
The fact is, there's already a straightforward way of dealing with any such problems: it's called the police.They have powers of arrest and charge for behaviour likely to occasion a breach of the peace, drunk and disorderly behaviour, threatening behaviour, criminal damage, and more.
The Met just can't be bothered to exercise these powers - or rarely.
The proposed ban does not appear to extend to advertising booze in public places. So there's no threat to two more adornments of Walthamstow’s Alcohol Restriction Zone, on Selborne Road E17 (Drink reshponshibly it says in the small print – I think that means, don’t drink more than four alcopops if you’re planning to text and drive.)
And obviously the ban doesn’t apply to supermarket booze bargains, which are now even better than you’ll get in a Calais hypermarket. And if twelve bottles of Stella at a giveaway price is your idea of good times, hurry to your nearest Tesco NOW.
