Welcome to Community Alcohol Partnerships

Tower Hamlets

The CAP area was plagued with antisocial behaviour and relatively high ambulance calls for alcohol-related incidents. Specific identified problems included underage alcohol consumption in public spaces and housing estates, street drinking and a general lack of awareness on how to prevent underage sales among local retailers. Managing anti-social behaviour related to alcohol was considered a priority within the area for the Metropolitan Police.

Date established: April 2014

Key partners:

Metropolitan Police, Trading Standards (TS) and Licensing Teams, Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officers (THEOS) , Local schools, Housing associations, RASG members with lead retailers for the area being Sainsbury’s and Tesco
 
Actions taken:

• 820 secondary students from 3 secondary schools surveyed at the outset to determine drinkingpatterns and how/wherestudents obtained alcohol

• Membership of the local“Underage Sales and Responsible Retailers Scheme”
increased from 55 to 155 licensed premises, all of whom were offered free training on preventing underage sales

• Drinkaware parents’ campaign materials used in ‘Parents Matter’ newsletter and parenting
information sessions delivered in CAP area secondary schools

• Regular patrols carried out in “hotspot” areas and housing estates

• Review Panel introduced for licensees who failed a test purchase

• Secondary schools introduced policies to prevent students in uniform from entering
problematic off licences

• Mobile unit workshops deployed in designated “hotspot” areas, resulting in engagement with 100 local youngsters

• Youth Employment Project piloted with two cohorts of young people who were not in employment, education or training (NEETs) leading to a Level 1 Certificate in Employability and two weeks work experience in Sainsbury’s

Impact: 

• After 6 months, anti-social behaviour reports fell by 46% in the CAP area
• Number of alcohol seizures decreased by 87% in 2014 in the CAP area
• Youth disorder decreased by 80%

 

 

In this section:

Collaborative working between a wide range of local stakeholders with a clear focus on shared aims and objectives is at the heart of the success of CAP.

Derek Lewis
Chairman of CAP

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