1. Street Drinking in Cheltenham Town Centre Cheltenham Town Centre Neighbourhood Coordination Group

2. Street Drinking in Cheltenham Town Centre Cheltenham Town Centre Neighbourhood Coordination Group identified street drinking in the town centre as an issue back in 2011. This followed on from complaints from residents and business owners. From an early date the NCG felt that a designated wet area could be the answer.

3. Street Drinking in Cheltenham Town Centre The worst affected places for this type of alcohol misuse: Sandford Park St Mary's Churchyard Jenner Gardens Winston Churchill Gardens New Street/ChapelStreet Lower High Street benches Complainants: Residents living around the periphery of the parks Businesses (particularly those in St Georges Square area) Bowling Green members The issues reported to us: Noise Litter Anti social behaviour Urinating in parks Sex in parks Abusive language Feeling intimidated Affecting business THE PROBLEM

4. Street Drinking in Cheltenham Town Centre A briefing from the Alcohol Academy in 2009 highlighted that a number of key issues are often highlighted by alcohol leads: That there is often a disproportionate amount of attention directed to street drinking issues compared to other local alcohol related harm. This is largely due to the high visibility of street drinking and the influence of outspoken local resident groups and/or councillors. Street drinking is a complex issue in which there are no ‘quick wins’ – effective responses are largely reported to be multi-pronged approaches that achieve the difficult balance between enforcement and support based interventions, however; Street drinkers are often treatment resistant and largely not motivated to change street drinking habits, making support based intervention options limited. Street drinkers have become increasingly homogenised into a wider more complex group of street populations including drug users, rough sleepers and beggars. The profile has been further widened by often transient street populations from Eastern European (A8/10) countries. AERC Alcohol Academy briefing (June, 2009) www.alcoholacademy.net THE PROBLEM

5. Street Drinking in Cheltenham Town Centre THE SOLUTION ENFORCEMENT - V – SUPPORT Is our aim to reduce anti social behaviour thus keeping residents, visitors and local businesses happy? OR Is our aim to reduce harm to individuals? These are clearly different objectives and this is very much the concern of the Town Centre NCG which has members from both enforcement and support agencies.

6. Street Drinking in Cheltenham Town Centre THE SOLUTION Enforcement Controlled Drinking Zones or Alcohol Free Zones as they are called in Cheltenham It is an offence to consume alcohol in this area when asked not to do so by a Police Officer. Considered ambiguous. Anti Social Behaviour Orders Is drinking in itself anti social? How difficult would it be to prove that the behaviour happened over a sustained period? Dispersal orders Solves immediate problems, but has time limitations. The problem comes back tomorrow. Environmental controls (e.g. moving benches, closing parks) Displaces the problem rather than solves it.

7. Street Drinking in Cheltenham Town Centre THE SOLUTION Support Multi agency work focussing on individuals. Requires access to the individuals and their cooperation. Alternative spaces and supervised environments. Otherwise known as ‘wet areas’ – which we have found to be controversial. Alcohol treatment requirements. Could be considered enforcement and would require arrest and conviction for a court to put this in place. Reconnection services. This can work and has done so in some areas with Eastern European nationals, but does require someone to care enough to want to be re-connected with them.

8. Street Drinking in Cheltenham Town Centre WHAT NEXT? Is our aim to reduce anti social behaviour thus keeping residents, visitors and local businesses happy? OR Is our aim to reduce harm to individuals? OR Are the numbers of street drinkers insignificant enough for us not to bother? We need a strategic steer on this.