Off licences and underage drinkers

[Guest]

Do you ever wonder where the youths who hang around in large groups in our streets and parks get their alcohol from? The sad truth is that much of it comes from our own High Street off licences.

Two years ago the situation was so bad that Brightons Residents Association wrote to every one of these shops, asking them to be more vigilant. Fuelled with alcohol, these kids were causing mayhem in Rosefield Park, vandalising local cars etc.

Last year I witnessed a group of youths (who were quite obviously under-age) being served alcohol in a High Street shop. Ironically, while some of them were being served, others were simply stealing bottles from the shelves. I reported the matter to the police who acted promptly. I also phoned the shop and spoke to the assistant concerned. She was very apologetic. She admitted that she had knowingly served alcohol to children on this and previous occasions but explained that she was alone in the shop and felt intimidated. The owner agreed that he would not leave her in such a vulnerable situation in future.

Recently, a friend witnessed children being served alcohol in another High Street shop, one in fact that has been prosecuted for this offence in the past. Again, she did the right thing and reported the matter to the police. It's not difficult to find out who the culprits are - it's simply a case of observing where these kids go, particularly early evening at weekends. It's in everyone's interest that we stop this from happening and the more complaints the police receive, the easier it becomes for them to justify the deployment of resources necessary to deal effectively with this problem.

As for the shopkeepers concerned, at a time when the community is fighting to keep our High Street shops in business, it's about time some of them started to act in a more responsible manner and to consider the consequences that we suffer as a community when 12 and 13 year old kids have drunk half a bottle of vodka, not least the damage that they are doing to themselves.

[Guest]

I was approached on the High Street this evening by a group of young girls who wanted me to buy 2 litres of Stongbow cider for them. I spotted them earlier hanging around outside Joppa Foodstore, asking other people to buy them alcohol. On my return trip they had moved on to Kost Konscious. The owners there were well aware of what they were up to. I left them outside Costcutter before popping into the Police Station to make a complaint.

They weren't causing trouble, and in fact they just looked like a bunch of ordinary local teenagers. The girl who spoke to me openly admitted to being 14. This isn't uncommon. It probably happens every weekend evening in Portobello. I wonder how many of their parents know what their kids are up to and what their attitude would be?

[Epykat]

As the parent of two teenagers (both under eighteen) I have been in the situation where one of them (or at least the one I caught ) has bought drink from a local shop (now closed down - clue!). Neither she, nor any of her friends looked 18 at the time but they still managed to buy enough for a fairly good party - including spirits. I phoned the Police and also spoke to the shopkeeper myself who denied all knowledge. However, since his price stickers were still on the bottles it was a bit of a giveaway. It's not easy to know what your kids are up to all the time and for their own good I took all the booze into safekeeping It's not always the fault of the parents who are an easy target to blame when their kids do things they're not meant to. We were all young once!