Successful Wokingham off licence training day
A Wokingham training day to help off licence holders from Earley, Lower Earley and Woodley combat under-age drinking proved a success this week.
Some 19 shop owners and staff representing 11 premises attended the event at Chameleon Nightclub in Wokingham town centre on Tuesday November 20. They were given advice from police and council officers on how to deal with under-age drinkers trying to buy alcohol and how to deal with young people who become aggressive if refused a sale. The council will hold further training days for off licence holders from other parts of the borough.
All those attending the Wokingham training day were also give information packs on dealing with under-age drinkers. The packs included ‘refusal logs’, which are books in which shopkeepers are asked to keep a record of when under-age shoppers try to buy alcohol; these are used by the police and council to keep track of where under-age drinking could be taking place.
Wokingham Borough Council community safety officer Stephanie Nagiel said: “We had great feedback from those who came to the event. They especially appreciated the opportunity to meet their local police community support officers and community wardens. Many said they would now feel more confident refusing to sell alcohol to young people, especially after the police gave assertive training to them. They also commented that it was good to hear from other shopkeepers in a similar position to themselves.”
Inspector Lindsay James, who attended the event, said: “We welcome the partnership approach to tackling this problem. We have had some good results through recent test purchasing exercises and this training will complement that work"
Some 19 shop owners and staff representing 11 premises attended the event at Chameleon Nightclub in Wokingham town centre on Tuesday November 20. They were given advice from police and council officers on how to deal with under-age drinkers trying to buy alcohol and how to deal with young people who become aggressive if refused a sale. The council will hold further training days for off licence holders from other parts of the borough.
All those attending the Wokingham training day were also give information packs on dealing with under-age drinkers. The packs included ‘refusal logs’, which are books in which shopkeepers are asked to keep a record of when under-age shoppers try to buy alcohol; these are used by the police and council to keep track of where under-age drinking could be taking place.
Wokingham Borough Council community safety officer Stephanie Nagiel said: “We had great feedback from those who came to the event. They especially appreciated the opportunity to meet their local police community support officers and community wardens. Many said they would now feel more confident refusing to sell alcohol to young people, especially after the police gave assertive training to them. They also commented that it was good to hear from other shopkeepers in a similar position to themselves.”
Inspector Lindsay James, who attended the event, said: “We welcome the partnership approach to tackling this problem. We have had some good results through recent test purchasing exercises and this training will complement that work"
Wokingham Borough Council
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