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Community Alcohol Partnership launches in Fleetwood to tackle underage drinking

Community alcohol partnership

A Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP) has been set up in Fleetwood to highlight the risks of underage drinking and improve the health and wellbeing of local young people.

It launched on the 1st August 2022 with a week-long series of activities designed to gather the views and concerns of the local community around young people drinking in the town, and to raise awareness of the support available to local retailers and parents in tackling the issue.

CAPs are made up of partnerships between local authorities, police, schools, retailers, neighbourhood groups and local organisations, working together to prevent alcohol-related harm to young people and improve the quality of life for residents. More than 250 schemes have now been launched across the UK.

The Wyre CAP, led by Wyre Council, will work with partners and members of the local community including Lancashire County Council Trading Standards and Children & Family Wellbeing Services, Lancashire Police, Lancashire Fire and Rescue to name a few, in addition to local social housing providers, schools and retailers.

It will liaise with youth services and local organisations to provide alcohol-free leisure and sports activities, and with local schools and parents to increase awareness of the risks of underage drinking.

Working with local retailers, the CAP aims to help them avoid making underage sales and reduce proxy sales where adults buy alcohol for under-18s.

Kate Winstanley, Director of Community Alcohol Partnerships, said: “I am delighted to see the launch of a CAP in Fleetwood. 

“Underage drinking is associated with school and educational problems, unprotected sex, drug-taking, violence and drinking problems in later life. In just over a decade CAP has set up more than 250 partnerships around the UK and our evaluations show they are having a significant impact on reducing children’s alcohol consumption, improving their health and wellbeing and enhancing the communities where they live.”

Neil Greenwood, Head of Environmental Health and Community Safety, commented, “Fleetwood is a great place to live and we want to keep it that way, however, we’ve seen pockets of anti-social behaviour in local parks, many of them involving young people and linked to alcohol. We hope that by working in partnership with other organisations we can address some of the factors that result in underage drinking and reduce the harm that alcohol causes to our young people and our communities.

“Keeping our young people safe is paramount and this proactive approach using a combination of education, enforcement and providing diversionary activities demonstrates how the community and local organisations are uniting to offer support”.

Officers from Wyre Council and the Police have been out in the community, collecting residents’ views on young people’s drinking and anti-social behaviour.

To have your say and voice any concerns, visit, www.wyre.gov.uk/CAPsurvey

Published: 5th August 2022

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