Legal restrictions call time on city's bid for local alcohol pricing
Hopes that Dundee might be able to introduce local price controls on alcohol to curb binge-drinking have been dashed by existing legislation.
- By Bruce Robbins
- Published in the Courier : 02.11.10
- Published online : 02.11.10 @ 11.01am
Dundee's licensing boss Rod Wallace has been forced to admit defeat over efforts to introduce a minimum price for alcohol in the city's pubs and clubs.
The licensing board chairman said, "It's looking like a non-starter. It's frustrating, but that's the way things go sometimes."
Mr Wallace had asked council officers to investigate the possibility of passing a by-law that would have enabled alcohol unit prices to be controlled locally.
In England the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities and 10 primary care trusts in the area have been working on a by-law for a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol.
The SNP government at Holyrood had plans to impose a minimum pricing policy in an effort to put the brakes on binge drinking, but opposition parties blocked the move in committee.
Now, it has emerged that the Licensing Act does not give local authorities the power to bring in the necessary by-law.
Mr Wallace said, "There would have been a lot of support for such a measure, with the country's chief medical officer, public health authorities and hospital staff — particularly those in the accident and emergency departments — and Tayside Police all in favour.
"Having looked at the detail of the Licensing Act, the council officer has come back and said there's no provision for Scottish local authorities to introduce their own by-laws.
"It might have been possible to amend the act to allow the by-law, but I don't think the Scottish Parliament would see something like that as a priority just now given the budget cuts it will have to deal with and the election that's coming up in May."
Dundee was one of four Scottish councils thought to be looking at some form of local control over alcohol prices as a way of tackling binge drinking and the problems it causes in city centres late at night.
The SNP's flagship alcohol pricing policy was designed to curb cut-price drink offers in shops and supermarkets, which revellers sometimes use to get "fuelled up" on alcohol before hitting the nightspots.
A local by-law setting the lowest price per unit of alcohol in Dundee would have a similar effect to the policy by cutting off access to cheap drinks offers in pubs and clubs.
It is understood that Scotland's Licensing Act gave local authorities the power to make by-laws until the option was removed in the 2005 version of the legislation.
Photo by Flickr user Michael Cornelius.
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