Liberal Democrats called for a toughening up of the rules surrounding the granting of a drinks licence by Walsall Council at last night’s meeting of Walsall’s Health and Wellbeing Board.

Liberal Democrat Councillor made the call in order to break the upward trend developing across the borough of alcohol related chronic health issues which endangered peoples lives and put further strain on an already over stretched NHS.

Speaking to the Board on a report from the Health and Wellbeing Alcohol Work Group Liberal Democrat Councillor Ian Shires welcomed the report’s findings and the need to raise awareness, particularly in schools, about the problems of Alcohol. The sensible and safe use of alcohol plays an important cultural and social role in our society. However when that use becomes problematic, alcohol can have significant negative impacts for the individual, their families and the communities in which they live if left unchallenged.

These negatives can be seen across a whole range of things, the link between alcohol abuse and mental health issues, physical health problems which can manifest themselves in dysfunctional families, domestic violence, community safety issues which impact on crime and the fear of crime. Alcohol abuse impacts on the NHS, disrupts accident and emergency services and diverts funding from already hard pressed chronic health issues.

The need to break the cycle of events which lead some from what is accepted as responsible drinking to problematical use came out in the report. One question the working group raised was “Do the council have the tools to restrict licensing applications in areas where there is already saturation coverage?  How effective is this?

Speaking to this Councillor Ian Shires said “I’m really not sure that the Council does have the tools necessary and even if the Council did I doubt that they word be robust enough to withstand a legal challenge @ an appeals hearing.”

Responding to this an officer from Walsall Council acknowledged that that was indeed the case. Health was not one of the criteria used in determining whether or not someone should be granted a license to sell alcohol. He added that there was a Private Members Bill going through Parliament but it has been held up due to the General Election.

Councillor Shires moved that it would be useful to help to get this through in the next Parliament by making Walsall’s three MPs, whoever they might be after the General Election, aware of the working party’s findings and also informing the Local Government Association at the same time. The Board agreed.