Analysing FOIs On Wrexham’s Anti-Social Public Drinking Problems

Following the recent attention drawn to anti-social drinking in Wrexham town centre, which saw a shop on Chester Street denied an alcohol licence and a heated debate amongst Wrexham councillors over introducing a Cumulative Impact Policy, Wrexham.com thought it would be a good idea to assess police statistics to gauge the extent of the issue.

One recent Freedom of Information request showed that police have confiscated alcohol 181 times between July 2011 and June 2012 in the Wrexham town and Wrexham rural policing wards.

Of these 32 were under Alcohol Control Orders which relate to drinking in designated public places, of those 27 were issued in Wrexham town and five in Wrexham rural.

Recently we were told by traders that they had seen an increase in police using Section 27 notices, which gives them the power to disperse people they suspect could become involved in ‘alcohol-related disorder’ from a specified area for up to 48 hours.

An FOI request we put in has revealed that as of 26th April 2012 police have used the orders in the Wrexham town ward 27 times. North Wales Police said that prior to this date the information was not recorded centrally so to provide historic data they would have to manually go through each officer’s pocket notebook.

These statistics do appear to show that there is an underlying issue with public drinking in Wrexham, but it also demonstrates that police are taking action against those who do so anti-socially.

At a meeting of the Wrexham Town Centre Forum Inspector Mark Williams told business owners: “North Wales Police will continue to hand out Section 27 notices if people are under the influence and could potentially be involved in violent crime.”

In addition five PCSOs are being introduced to increase police presence in the town centre.

One area of contention though is the council’s response to these problems. Whilst the denial of the Chester Street alcohol licence was undoubtedly seen as a positive move, this good will was soured at an executive board meeting the following week where the proposal to introduce a Cumulative Impact Policy was put forward and subsequently attacked.

At the meeting there seemed to be widespread confusion over whether the council already has such a policy in existence; as explained in more detail here paragraph’s 17.1 and 17.3 of the licensing policy seem to be at direct odds with one another on this.

Also Deputy Leader Cllr Mark Pritchard’s comments that “this town is being portrayed as having a bigger problem than it does” seemed to downplay the problem. The points he made about not talking Wrexham down are valid, but when town centre traders are complaining of a direct impact on business due to alcohol fuelled anti-social behaviour it is hard not to recognise that an issue exists.

As Cllr William Baldwin pointed out, saying that an issue isn’t there won’t get rid of it and at an earlier meeting that day, attended by Wrexham.com and Council Leader Neil Rogers, a group of men drinking on a bench outside the window had to be moved on.

The route of alcohol related anti-social behaviour no doubt runs deeper into wider economic and social issues, which are hard to prevent. However, many people we have spoken to around town have said they would like to see Wrexham Council trying to do more within its powers to tackle the problems head on.