As of November 1st, police and council officers are now using new powers to seize the bottles and cans of anti-social street drinkers and pour the liquor down the drain. Groups of drunks are being targeted and persistent boozers who refuse to hand over their drinks face a £500 fine and a night in the cells.
Met police Inspector Bill Heasman, who has worked with the council to get the scheme up and running, said, “Officers are now on the look out from problem drunks on the borough’s streets and in public areas. The CDA provides officers with additional powers to deal with anti social drunks. I hope that by enforcing the CDA with our partners we will improve the quality of life of local people who are going about their daily business."
The council investigation revealed that from July 2005 to June 2006 the police had 5,320 calls for disturbance in a public place due to alcohol and 1,562 calls for drunkenness in the small borough. A borough wide head count of street drinkers in August this year showed that there were at least 107 drunks on the street at that time. Hammersmith & Fulham also has the fifth highest levels of cirrhosis in England and Wales as well as the highest alcohol-related ambulance call outs in London and the highest level of alcohol dependency in London.
1 comment:
Good to hear that some effort is being put in the area of drunks in our neighbourhood.
Having said that, I dont understand the point of charging these people a fine of £500 which they cannot afford and most probably are on income/housing support.
They need to be moved on or put in rehab. I just dont understand why the drunks are still allowed to loiter and drink near the end of brook green, in that little green near Tesco and the fire/police station.
There must be a smarter solution, that would get them off our streets and add some value to their lives to enable to have a positive existence.
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