New blitz on booze crime

POLICE from Oldham will join licensing officers, neighbourhood teams and trading standards officers on a training event to call time on alcohol-fuelled violence across the borough.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is holding the three-day training event to help its officers tackle alcohol-related crime and disorder in licensed premises.

It is sponsored by the Home Office and takes place from today to Wednesday at the Manchester Conference Centre.

During the event, representatives from the police, Home Office and legal services will carry out checks on a number of licensed premises with crime and disorder problems.

Working with the designated premises supervisor, the team will look to address any breaches in the licensing regulations and agree on the appropriate action to be taken.

The event will also be used to learn from and share good practice from other police forces across the UK with our partners such as local authorities and trading standards.

Chief Supt Steven Hartley, GMP’s lead on alcohol-related issues, said: “There are already a number of well-established operations in place across Greater Manchester to tackle alcohol-related crime, which have successfully made our city and town centres safer places to enjoy a night out.

“However, as a number of changes have been made to the Licensing Act 2003 in the past 12 months and further ones are still to be implemented, we see this as a good opportunity to ensure our officers in particular those new to a licensing role have the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to deal with alcohol-fuelled violence.”