'This is music to my ears': Dewsbury councillor welcomes new policy to curb alcohol-related offences in the town centre

At Tuesday’s (July 4) meeting of Kirklees Council’s environment and climate change scrutiny panel, the proposal to introduce a cumulative impact assessment (CIA) policy was discussed.

A CIA assesses the potential impact of a concentrated number of licensed premises within a specific area and the effect this has on licensing objectives like crime and disorder, public safety and the protection of children from harm.

Should the policy be approved, future applicants will have to demonstrate that they will not add to the cumulative impact within the relevant area before a licence is granted.

However, to implement the policy, evidence is needed, so the council has been working with Public Health, which in turn has been working with West Yorkshire Police to gather data on general and alcohol-related crime statistics.

Russell Williams, operational manager within the council’s Public Protection Service, told the meeting that there is “sufficient evidence” to support a period of consultation on the proposed CIA.

In the case of Kirklees, it is suggested that the CIA will only be applied to off-licences, with concern around the growing number of such establishments, specifically mini-marts, that are opening in the town centres.

Four or five are said to be operational in Dewsbury, with a further four in Huddersfield, with the council receiving applications on a regular basis for similar businesses.

Chairwoman of the panel, Coun Jackie Ramsey (Labour, Dewsbury South) welcomed the proposals and said: “This is music to my ears that we’re starting to look at something like this.

"As we get better at it, perhaps as an organisation, we could start looking at things like all the fast food chains, all the vape stores, all those kind of things that we know that are really bad for public health, but we seem to have a plethora of them in some areas, for instance, the Ravensthorpe strip.”

She added: “Bearing in mind I am a Dewsbury councillor, I know how unsafe it feels as a woman to walk across the town centre at night.

"I know I’m told that I don’t need to worry, but it isn’t a great feeling, I can assure you.

“Just to support the need for this, we’ve had some big events in Dewsbury.

"We had the Woven launch – unfortunately, we got street drinking during that.

"We’ve had the Christmas lights turn on every year and unfortunately, we’ve got street drinking taking place there, and that’s when the police and the council officers are out and about and people are asked to move on.

"On a Wednesday or a Saturday, it’s different.”

The proposal will go to the licensing committee on July 19, with a 12-week period of consultation to take place until late September. The process will conclude with a final report being heard by the full council next January.

Due to the length of the process and the issues being experienced now, other measures are being explored to tackle the alcohol-related problems in the town centre.

These include looking at the council’s existing PSPOs, stopping the sale of high-strength single cans, and determining whether there is enough evidence to warrant a review of licences.