West Oxfordshire Nightsafe
13,000 Spikeys have been given to local licensees
'Nightsafe' is a major campaign which aims to reduce alcohol-related violent crime and disorder.
Local licensees have signed up to the Nightsafe Licensing Charter in order to improve safety in town centres and within their premises.
Measures include:
- Membership of the local pubwatch scheme;
- Managing drinks promotions responsibly;
- Displaying posters about responsible drinking;
- Ensuring that staff are trained on managing alcohol misuse;
- Front door staff wearing high-visibility vests;
- Taxi drivers are also joining the campaign by displaying magnetic stickers on their vehicles.
Many initiatives have been introduced under the Nightsafe banner.
These include:
- Displaying posters in all town centre licensed premises during the World Cup;
- Purchasing radios for each licensed premise in Witney town centre. The radios provide a direct link with the CCTV Control Room and each other in order to increase awareness of incidents and to deal with them as quickly as possible;
- Introduction of the use of Spikeys - stoppers which go into bottled drinks so that they cannot be spiked. Over 13,000 have been distributed to licensed premises;
- Wasted Nights DVD - The DVD raises awareness of the night-time economy and the consequences of alcohol-related disorder. It includes interviews with local residents, a paramedic, door supervisors, police officers, a licensing officer, taxi drivers and an offender. It also contains footage of young people under the influence of alcohol.
The DVD has been developed into an educational package for Year 10 students at secondary schools. This is currently being rolled out across the district and other Councils in the UK have purchased the package for their local area.
- Lollipops were distributed to licensees during the festive period in 2006, following evidence that giving sugar to drinkers stablises their behaviour and reduces the resulting alcohol-related disorder.
For more information about West Oxfordshire Nightsafe and any of its initiatives, please contact the Community Safety Team
