Pubwatch Can Help Tackle Bedminster Street Drinking And Anti-Social Behaviour

Walking towards East Street just after 3pm on a sunny May afternoon, ahead of me an elderly lady was struggling down the last step from the Diamond Street car park with her trolley. A loud chorus of jeers accompanied her.

I drew level with her and looked up the path towards the car park, wondering who would be shouting at an old lady like that. The answer? A group of Bedminster’s street drinkers.

Half a dozen men in their thirties and forties were sprawled on the little patch of grass there amid the broken seats. Surrounding them were carrier bags full of cans, and littered across the grass were several empty cans. One rolled down the path and came to a stop by my feet: Skol, 9.9 per cent.

Street drinking in this area has been top of the list of PACT priorities – set for the police by local residents – for months now. The police have been working with Safer Bristol, Streetwise and the anti-social behaviour teams along with the East Street Traders Association and the Greater Bedminster team in an effort to reduce street drinking locally. 

Their efforts range from legal measures (moving street drinkers on) to social methods such as engaging with street drinkers.

But what effort is being made by the people who sell the alcohol in the first place? What are the pubs, retailers and off-licences doing?

Not enough, according to Dawn Shanahan, manger of the Assembly pub on East Street. 

Since arriving in Bedminster to take over the running of the Assembly nearly a year ago, Dawn has tried to set up a Pubwatch scheme.

It’s a scheme that has been very successful in driving down street drinking and anti-social behaviour in other areas of the country. Local pubs, retailers and off-licences sign up to the scheme and undertake not to sell alcohol to known street drinkers, troublemakers or anyone who’s obviously had too much to drink already and is behaving anti-socially. And they operate a banned list: anyone banned from one pub or shop is automatically banned from buying alcohol at the others.

It sounds like a great idea.

Yet, with a few notable exceptions, Dawn says the response from many of Bedminster’s pubs, retailers and off-licences has been distinctly lukewarm. Retailers’ promises of security guards haven’t been fulfilled. Many pub managers don’t attend the Pubwatch meetings, despite getting notice of them a month in advance. Most off-licences don’t want to know at all.

Dawn puts this down to a fear of losing trade. It’s a fear that she believes is misplaced, in any event: “They should clean up their act. They’re worried about losing trade, but if you kick the troublemakers out of our pubs and off our streets, you can attract a nicer clientele – and there’s a lot more of them.”

“It’s not enough in this trade anymore to just open the doors and watch the customers flow in – you have to attract them.”

And attracting customers applies as much to the surrounding streets as to the pubs themselves.

Dawn is proud to say that – with her firm, no-nonsense approach to troublemakers – in her pub at least groups of young women can have a drink in a relaxing atmosphere; women even feel safe enough to pop in on their own and use the Internet. Looking around me as we chat, I see groups of people of all ages enjoying themselves, and several people sat comfortably on their own. The pub is busy and the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. The Assembly is a good advert for the Pubwatch scheme and it’s a wonder that more pubs aren’t involved, if this is anything to go by.

But it’s not just the lack of interest from pubs, off-licences and retailers that has hindered the Bedminster Pubwatch scheme. When it comes to creating a banned list, Dawn has been met with another obstacle: the dreaded red tape that threatens to strangle so many community events and initiatives nowadays.

At one point, Dawn was told that putting people on a banned list would breach their human rights – not something that has been a difficulty elsewhere in the UK. On another occasion she was told it would be a breach of the Data Protection Act to operate a banned list.

Despite the difficulties she has met with, Dawn’s not about to give up, but she would certainly welcome support from the local community.

It’s easy enough to avoid the pubs where intimidating and anti-social behaviour is tolerated – and to support the pubs where it’s not – but it’s another matter when it’s confronting us on our streets.

So, if street drinking and anti-social behaviour bothers you, next time you’re enjoying a quiet pint in your local, popping into the off-licence for a nice bottle of red, or picking up some cut-price cans in Tesco or Asda, it might be worth asking if they’re a member of Pubwatch – and if not, why not?