City venues fail underage alcohol test (From Salisbury Journal)
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City venues fail underage alcohol test
11:43am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in Headlines By Jill Harding
A PUB and nightclub in Salisbury have been caught selling alcohol to underage teenagers.
The Chapel Nightclub in Milford Street and the Slug and Lettuce in Bridge Street both failed a licensed premises test purchase operation carried out by Wiltshire Police on Friday night.
Two 15-year-old volunteers were allowed into the premises and served alcoholic drinks at the bar.
They were not challenged by door staff or those working behind the bar at either venue, and were not asked for any ID.
Nine city centre premises were visited as part of the operation, which was conducted by police officers, special constables and licensing staff.
In the seven other venues the 15-year-olds were challenged and either refused entry or stopped from buying alcohol.
Police licensing manager David Bennett said: “It is encouraging to see that the majority of venues visited have refused to allow the youngsters to purchase alcohol.
“However, it is of significant concern to see that two 15-year-old girls have entered a late night venue, first passing through security and then being served alcohol at the bar.
“Those venues that failed have already been made aware. We will work with the management of these premises in an effort to improve procedures.”
Police say they will continue to use test purchase operations to clamp down on the sale of alcohol to under 18s. And they plan to visit pubs in rural locations as well as in towns and the city centre.
“We will specifically target those premises where intelligence indicates that youngsters are being served alcohol and where we believe ID challenges are not being made,” said Mr Bennett.
“Underage consumption is alcohol is a serious concern to us. As well as the obvious detrimental health and safety factors caused by youngsters consuming alcohol, there is also a clear link to crime, disorder and antisocial behaviour.”
Chapel licensee Amanda Newbery said she was “disappointed” staff had failed to realise the volunteers were underage.
“At The Chapel, we continually strive for our customers enjoy themselves in a truly safe environment and do our utmost to adhere to a wide range of licensing legislation,” she said.
“We have put an action plan in place to help our staff in our ongoing work to combat underage drinking.”
A spokesman for Slug and Lettuce said the incident was a “one off” and the firm has “stringent procedures in place to prevent the sale of any alcohol to minors”.
She said the contract with the company providing door supervisors has since been terminated and a member of bar staff suspended.
Comments(19)
hillyanne
says...
6:33pm Wed 13 Mar 13
and will be a huge burden on the NHS in years to come.)
Daveygreensleeves
says...
8:34am Thu 14 Mar 13
amandanewbery
says...
4:15pm Thu 14 Mar 13
We have had one post removed for a serious and libellous set of comments. If that person, or any other, would like to come and meet with me to discuss their concerns and to see what we do to combat any type of criminal and antisocial behaviour, including underage drinking and drug taking, then I would welcome that.
Please do not hide behind your anonymity and take part in an open discussion. We are very sad that our systems failed last Friday but we have taken quick action to make sure we can't make the same mistake twice.
Daveygreensleeves
says...
6:35pm Thu 14 Mar 13
Loosenoose
says...
7:34pm Thu 14 Mar 13
Tony Whale
says...
9:39pm Thu 14 Mar 13
Tony Whale
says...
10:07pm Thu 14 Mar 13
I will have an open discussion with you.
So you have a 'belief' that there is a drug and underage drinking problem but you 'did not mention it was fact' ..what kind of statement is that? If I had a good reason to believe such a thing then I would a) Put my name to it and b) Be specific.
The under age drinking aspect of your vague allegation is pretty much answered in both mine and Amandas' responses above so I will not repeat it all.
I do not know where you have pulled the 'drug problem' allegation from but there is nothing from the police operation or anything reported in the Salisbury Journal about drugs.
You would appear to have some 'agenda' that you are trying to project on to the Chapel. That says more about you than it does about us.
When you have something useful to say we will be pleased to listen and look at the evidence. Should there be any substance to that information we would be the first to act upon intelligence regarding drug usage.
Until then kindly keep your wild imaginings to yourself.
aldonreaper
says...
11:01pm Thu 14 Mar 13
Dr S Brule
says...
9:40am Fri 15 Mar 13
I'm inclined to agree with the propiereters - no system is perfect and people will slip through the cracks.
Back in the day we used a scanned passport edited in microsoft paint, and strategic use of beer gardens. Now I don't even get asked - the thrill is gone.
Daveygreensleeves
says...
9:50am Fri 15 Mar 13
When I was about 16 years of age, I used to frequent many pubs in and around Salisbury, didn't we all at that age? Nothing has changed, each generation does the same thing. It is part of the growing up process.
My previous comment
"It's strange that a one off mistake occurred just as you were being checked! What are the chances of that?" -If your ID checking procedures are so stringent, doesn't it seem that you are seriously unlucky to get caught out on the very first occasion ID wasn't checked? What is the probability of that?
I hope I have addressed your post satisfactorily.
David Green
Tony Whale
says...
12:03pm Fri 15 Mar 13
Thank you for a specific reply and also for declaring your name, I respect that a lot.
No, we were not 'unlucky' and we offer no lame excuse for the fail on Friday night.
We were 'human'. It was such a quiet night in town that we allowed our attention to slip. Just like most people at work there are occasions when you feel less than 100% and start to 'nod off at your desk' ..the system itself was good but the human factor failed on this occasion.
As a direct result of this incident we have reviewed and strengthened our procedures to eliminate this failure in the future.That is what professionals do, learn from mistakes and improve.
If your 16 year old step sons' friend is indeed getting into our venue (and it is not just empty boasting as teens will sometimes do), then they are possibly using someone elses ID to achieve this. We (along with other licensees would very much like to know the names involved so we can stop it without delay.
My email address is tony@chapelnightclub
.co.uk if you feel able to provide any information in confidence that will support us in protecting minors.
We already have individuals who have a 6 month pubwatch ban that comes into effect once they attain the age of 18 because of such fraudulent use of an older siblings ID and would like to keep sending out the message that this will not be tolerated.
To be honest David, only a complete fool would want to sell alcohol to under 18s...think about it: We have a multi-million pounds business established for over 15 years...do you honestly think that we would intentionally risk that for a few quids worth of drink sold to children?
With over 2,000 people a week coming through our doors, under-age access is a constant challenge and one we will all continue to work hard at maintaning and improving.
I believe most people appreciate and support the fact that we do strive to operate to the highest standards in safety and legality.
There will always be a few who take delight in siezing the opportunity to try and 'stick the boot in' if something goes wrong but are unwilling to contribute anything positive to support the work that is done relentlessly every week of every year.
Hopefully you are in the former group, so I look forward to receiving your email.
Regards,
Tony Whale
amandanewbery
says...
12:16pm Fri 15 Mar 13
The answer is that, yes of course youngsters do try and get into venues under age. We come across regular attempts which include a few fake id's, borrowed sibling's id's etc and we catch all that we can. Mistakes are mistakes and we do our utmost not to make them.
I wonder if your stepson's and his friends are referring to our under 18 events which are a regular feature here at The Chapel. We run them along side the Police and some of the schools and they are pretty much the same as the adult nights but without the alcohol. Perhaps you could see if that is what he is referring to?
Amanda
who_cares
says...
2:35pm Fri 15 Mar 13
Whilst not insinuating for one minute I believe gender had a doing in the Chapel and Slug's failure, it would have been interesting to have seen if two 15 year old boys would have had similar success in both venues, and also the general profile of the two girls.
Having said that, my general concerns within clubs are less the youngsters and more the adults (35+) who seem at times completely out of control. Underage drinkers tend to try and shy away from the attention or end up vomiting in a bin or down themselves, IMO.
Loosenoose
says...
8:08pm Fri 15 Mar 13
I have no agenda against your venue but have a keen interest in keeping Salisbury a safe and respectable city!
Yours sincerely
MARTHA EVANS
amandanewbery
says...
1:58pm Sat 16 Mar 13
We also work hard at keeping Salisbury a safe and respectable city.
We work as a team here at the Chapel and, whilst we appreciate the seriousness of Friday night's issue, we understand that mistakes do happen, we learn from them and we move forward together.
With regards
Amanda Newbery
aldonreaper
says...
4:43pm Sat 16 Mar 13
the police are advising the clubs and helping with new tactics so its not neccesary to sack any staff for a mistake, the problem is only made worse by people with no patience or tolerance shouting what they think should happen, My daughter is now 30 years old and still gets asked for ID at the chapel, I have worked in pubs and i know how difficult it can be to get it right every time, there have been occasions when a group of people 20-30 have walked away because one did not have ID and that can cost a landlord a fortune, however he will refuse that one but can miss them hidden in a big group
HedleyLamarr
says...
5:31pm Sat 16 Mar 13
really ?
says...
8:05am Sun 17 Mar 13
Firstly I want to make it clear I am not a fan of the Chapel nightclub and never have been. I have lived in the area for over 30 years and it was always a last resort to go there on a night out...... Normally because there was nowhere else to go.
However in their defence, do you honestly expect they are going to catch every underage individual that tries to get through the doors ?
Regardless of whether its a quiet night or a busy night there will be a small percentage that succeed in bypassing the security measures and only a fool would believe they could catch everybody !
The sad point is that most of the people that complain about this were probably celebrating their own success at doing the same thing many years ago........ But now they "know better" feel justified in blaming the establishments.
From what I have been told by my nephew, who is over 18, there are a few underage attending the Chapel frequently. It is not a one off situation, it just happens they were caught out this time around, however the percentage of underage is small. These underage either look old enough to enter or have the right ID, so you cant expect every one to be turned away.
If the Chapel had a reputation for violence, drugs or any other undesirable then I could see why you would want to complain about them but it doesn't !
Leave them to work out better ways to catch out the underage but don't expect 100% success rates because it's not possible !
karlmarx says...
1:21pm Wed 13 Mar 13