Clause 13 - Designation of alcohol disorder zones
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
10:15 am
Lynne Featherstone (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Hornsey and Wood Green, Liberal Democrat)
The purpose of amendment No. 138 is to raise the threshold of and require a more causal link for the establishment of alcohol disorder zones. There must be a fear that the threshold is too low and that a local authority might, in designating an area as an alcohol disorder zone, particularly if there is an incentive to get funding for policing, believe a nuisance or annoyance to be relatively low. The Minister looks at me quizzically, but that fear applies throughout the Bill: we do not know how far the measures will be applied. The intention may be obvious, but the wording is not. If the words “persistent and repeated” were inserted, the threshold at which a local authority could designate such a zone would be raised.