A blitz on booze across Dundee could come a step closer this week.
Figures from the Dundee Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) reveal that in 2010 alcohol-related harm cost the city £71.05 million.
This led ADP to conclude the city is “overprovided” with alcohol, and members of the licensing board will be presented with a report on the matter at its meeting this Thursday.
The debate comes as more than 200 people signed a petition against an application for a new off-sales on City Road.
Failing a city-wide implementation of the restriction, the ADP has called for Maryfield, Coldside, Lochee, East End and the North East to be restricted, as these areas suffer the most from alcohol-related social problems.
Councillors will now be asked whether or not they believe the city is overprovided with alcohol and, if they agree, to consider what sort of measures they might take to curtail it.
These could include a city-wide halt of issuing licences, or a targeted approach to areas where alcohol does the most harm.
However, the board has previously refused to accept that there is any overprovision in the city.
The report said: “(Previously) the board took the view that it had yet to be presented with sufficient evidence to enable it to state there is any such overprovision in the city.”
It continues: “It is, of course, open to the board to conclude that, notwithstanding the material contained in the ADP report, there is no over-provision in any localities in Dundee.”
Other troubling statistics presented by the ADP show that nearly half of 13-year-olds who have had an alcoholic drink say they have bought alcohol themselves, while most under-age drinkers got friends, relatives or strangers to buy drinks for them.
The report also suggested Dundee residents feel there are too many off-sales premises providing cheap alcohol, as well as having concerns about the length of the opening hours of on-sales premises.
Peter Allan, Dundee City Council’s community planning manager and a member of the team that presented the report to the board, said: “It is clear from the feedback that we have had as part of this process that people in Dundee feel there is an over-provision of alcohol sales in the city.
“Our recommendations to the board reflect that concern and we believe that along with its existing policies and enforcement of the current regulations the licensing board can bring about a healthier attitude to the sale and consumption of alcohol in the city.”
The licensing act of 2005 requires the board to undertake an over-provision assessment to be included in the board’s three-yearly statement of licensing policy.