Gresford & Chirk Pubs Ordered To Close Due To Underage Sales

Two more pubs in Wrexham county borough have been served with a notice to close for 48 hours after selling alcohol to underage persons on two separate occasions within a three month period.

The Police, supported by Trading Standards Officers, completed test purchasing operations in August and September. On both occasions the Yew Tree in Gresford and the Hand Inn in Chirk sold alcohol to an under age person. As a result the Police have again used the powers available to them under Section 169A(2) of the Licensing Act 2003 to close the premises for 48 hours for persistently selling alcohol to underage persons.

The Yew Tree, Gresford will close from 5.00pm on Friday to 5.00 pm on Sunday

The Hand Hotel, Chirk, will close from 5.00 pm on Friday 9th November to 5 pm on Sunday 11 November.

North Wales Police Inspector Arwyn Jones said “North Wales Police takes breaches of licences seriously. We are committed to working with our partner agencies such as Wrexham County Council and Trading Standards to ensure that any licence breaches are dealt with robustly.”

“This positive action is an example of the way in which the police and our partners are keen to enforce the licencing legislation to achieve our objectives of preventing crime and disorder and protecting children from harm. The sale of alcohol to minors will not be tolerated and we will strive to take the appropriate action to ensure the safety and welfare of this group is maintained”

Lee Robinson, Chair of Wrexham Community Safety Partnership and Strategic Director with Wrexham Council, said “Very clear links can be made between alcohol consumption amongst young people and anti social behaviour and violent crime. We therefore welcome this move by our partners in the Police and will do everything we can both as a council and as the Community Safety Partnership to reduce under age drinking in the county.”

“The message is clear from all partners – underage drinking is unacceptable and we will continue to use every available resource to prevent it happening.”

The news follows two closures in the summer which saw the New Inn in Johnstown and the Welch Fusiliers in the town centre both closed for repeatedly failing test purchasing exercises as we reported here.

Test purchasing exercises are just one of the ways in which the Community Safety Partnership tackles under age drinking. They recently ran an awareness raising campaign of the need for parents to take responsibility for their children during their GCSEs and not encourage them to celebrate by purchasing alcohol for them to drink or by taking them to pre-arranged meeting places to drink.