Crime fear over Truro newsagent's bid to sell alcohol from 6am to 11pm

Street drinking is increasing
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


A bid by a newsagent in the heart of Truro to extend its licence and opening times to sell alcohol from 6am to 11pm was given short shrift by a police spokesperson, who believed it would exacerbate antisocial behaviour and crime associated with street drinking in the city.

Aran Vijayaragavan, who took over long-established Tremletts newsagents in River Street in March, had applied for an extension as he told a Cornwall Council licensing committee that he believed there was customer demand.

He said customers come in for their morning papers and other items and "we are not able to fulfil their purchase of alcohol when they want to buy it. We want to experiment by selling alcohol up until 11pm for local people".

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He added: "If things do go sour we're happy to revert back as we don't want any nuisance."

Councillors heard that the shop is within Truro's Cumulative Impact Zone (CIZ), which aims to control the consumption of alcohol in areas where there are incidents of antisocial behaviour.

Tremletts in River Street, Truro
Tremletts in River Street, Truro -Credit:Google Maps

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Sue Edwards, Devon and Cornwall Police licensing officer, told the meeting on Wednesday (September 25): "As I'm sure you're all aware, Truro does experience issues with crime and disorder, antisocial behaviour and street drinking, which have a large effect on daily policing. We have a dedicated antisocial behaviour officer and we also now have street rangers that patrol daily."

When the new owners took over Tremletts, Ms Edwards visited and told them that the premises are situated directly in front of Chough House, which is owned by Cornwall Council and houses vulnerable homeless people who have drug and alcohol issues.

She pointed out the importance of not selling alcohol to anybody who appeared intoxicated as this exacerbated antisocial behaviour and crime. Ms Edwards said she had to speak to the previous owners of Tremletts as a female resident of Chough House had been buying alcohol while under the influence and dressed in her pyjamas to take back to the premises.

"That shows the close proximity Chough House has to Tremletts," she added. On July 31, the antisocial behaviour officer witnessed one of Truro's well-known street drinkers being served further alcohol at Tremletts while extremely intoxicated. Ms Edwards visited the premises the next day and spoke to a member of staff who didn't deny serving the street drinker but said in his defence that the man had "demanded the alcohol".

"I gave suitable advice in his legal obligation in refusing the service of alcohol to anybody who appears intoxicated and said he should have called the police if he felt threatened. I also informed him that if further instances of this nature occurred consideration would be given to issuing a fixed penalty notice, or a prosecution, and the premises licence could be at risk."

She said the new application was submitted with no extra conditions mentioning the effect of crime and disorder, or the fact the shop is in an impact zone. The police's licensing officer added there was no evidence that the applicant would not be adding to the impact of street drinking.

The Public Health team had also lodged an objection to the licence variation and the applicant offered additional measures to mitigate risks to the zone, most of which were already included in the shop's current licence i.e. staff training, CCTV and requesting ID.

Ms Edwards added: "We are asking that the sale of alcohol is not available at that time (from 6am to 8am) or late into the night. We do not believe that the general public popping into Tremletts to get their morning paper will be looking to purchase alcohol at 6am.

"In our opinion the only people who will be attracted to purchase alcohol that early are the street drinkers who go on to cause the crime, disorder and antisocial behaviour on the streets of Truro that the police, antisocial warden and street rangers then have to deal with all day long."

Committee member Cllr Peter Perry said the extent of a street drinking problem was obvious at various sites in the city centre. "I can honestly say that in the last four times I have visited Truro on two of those occasions there have been incidents where there was rowdyism and the police involved to break up scuffles, so it is a nuisance," he added.

Mr Vijayaragavan said there was no evidence of street drinkers between the times of 6am and 9am and from 6pm to 11pm. Again, he stressed the extension to alcohol sales would be a trial and if there was trouble they would "pull back as obviously safety and public nuisance is a big issue".

The application to vary the licence was refused with the committee believing that if it was granted it would have a negative impact on the city.