A booze ban at a notorious Dunfermline homelessness hostel has been overturned after an appeal by the housing association that runs it.
“There are tenants who have lived there for 10, 12 and 15 years. Some of them have tenancy agreements and this condition would create a situation where they wouldn’t have been able to have a can of beer in their own home.
”I actually think it’s illegal for us to start stipulating to people who have a tenancy agreement that they can’t have a drink in their own house.”
Chairman of the committee, Councillor Bob Young, also a Dunfermline councillor, added: ”I agree. The name of the place, you would envisage it as one building. That’s not the case.”
The condition in the licencing agreement now reads: ”Residents are not permitted to consume alcohol within the property to the extent which renders them to behave in an anti-social manner which causes or is deemed to be likely to cause alarm or distress to others.”
Peter Mitchell (38), who has lived at the hostel since 2009, welcomed the decision to relax the rules.
He said: ”It was a stupid idea in the first place. It doesn’t make sense to stop people having a drink in their houses. Anyway, people are going to get it in either way. They would have just put it in empty juice bottles.”
George Gordon (43), from Rosyth, who has been at James Bank for four months, said: ”I don’t think many people knew about it. If they had known they’d have gone crazy.
”If people can’t drink in their house, they’ll just do it in the street. That would have caused more problems for the police.”
David Devlin (45), from High Valleyfield, who has been at James Bank hostel since the turn of the year, said: ”It’s a joke. How can they tell people not to drink in their own house?”
As part of the conditions of licence, Kingdom Housing Association must also meet with nearby residents and police to discuss any issues about the occupants ”where requested”.
The document states: ”A minimum of four meetings involving local residents and/or the local police, at which any issues surrounding the property and its occupants can be discussed, will be held or attended by Kingdom Housing Association Ltd per year.”
Councillors took the decision to clamp down on residents at James Bank hostel after hearing reports that police had been called out 130 times in a year.
Speaking after a meeting of the regulation and licencing committee in September, former chairman Gerry McMullan said: ”I was happy to place these conditions on this establishment. We heard at the meeting some of the residents require help and support for various social issues, including alcohol and drug misuse.”
However, Kingdom Housing Association said enforcing the order would be impossible and successfully appealed.
Chief executive Alan McGuckin told The Courier: ”Maintaining and enforcing a ban on consuming alcohol in a house in multiple occupation would be impractical. However, where consumption of alcohol results in anti-social behaviour, then we would deal with this under our Breach of Occupancy Procedure, which could result in the termination of the resident’s occupancy agreement.”
Fife Police say they are called to the hostel regularly to deal with problems caused by residents.
A spokesman told the Courier: ”We have attended 43 times this year so far. Twelve visits were pre-arranged, so we have been called out about once a week.”
However, Dunfermline councillor Mike Rumney believes that it was the right decision to overturn the alcohol ban.
He said: ”As one of two west Fife members on the committee, I was party to this decision (to ban alcohol) during the last administration. I don’t think the committee was aware that there are two sections in the facility.”
Continued…