Adults being warned not to buy alcohol for under-age drinkers

There are fears children as young as 13 could have binge drinking problems.

Police and council bosses want to make adults think twice before saying agreeing to buy drink for teenagers who hang around off-licences and outside pubs pestering passers-by to bring them carry outs.

Council bosses launching the campaign yesterday described statistics about underage drinking in the Harrogate District as "shocking and stark".

The message yesterday was that one of the main ways children that young get access to alcohol is because older people buy it for them.

Coun Les Ellington, Chairman of the Harrogate and District Safer Communities Partnership, said alcohol is a major contributory factor to anti-social behaviour in the Harrogate district.

He continued: "Under-age drinking is an issue but how they obtain alcohol is an even bigger problem.

"We work extremely closely with the licensing trade but how can they be expected to know that when serving alcohol to adults that it will be passed on to under-age drinkers. This has to stop."

Harrogate and Richmondshire District Community Safety Partnerships are working together to run a campaign to raise awareness of the damage alcohol can do to young people and to urge adults not to purchase buy it for them.

Young people need to be over 18 to obtain alcohol and the Proxy Buying Awareness Campaign is encouraging adults to think twice about their actions.

North Yorkshire Police are supporting the campaign with Police Community Support Officers distributing information leaflets to off-licences and other outlets.

Insp Will Scarlett added: "There are serious consequences for those who sell or purchase alcohol for those not old enough to drink it. There are heavy fines and possible criminal convictions.

"If you are approached to buy alcohol, please think about the consequences and the danger you might be putting these young people into. We all have a responsibility to safeguard our young people and our community from the dangers of alcohol."

Marcus Quandt, Chair of Harrogate Off Watch – a group of about 50 off-licence operators – commended the awareness-raising campaign.

He said: "Everything we can do to educate people to act responsibly around alcohol has to be worthwhile. As a group we work with the council's licensing officers and within schools to warn about the dangers of starting to drink too young or to over-indulge. This message is clearly for those who irresponsibly purchase or give alcohol to young people."

The problem of underage drinking in Harrogate has already led the partnership to launch its ground-breaking Consequences programme at Harrogate Magistrates Court, highlighting the pitfalls of underage drinking.

Concern about the issue dates back to October 2007, when Harrogate town centre was swamped by a group of 200 children who had been refused entry to a private party after arriving at the venue drunk.

Two months later, a town centre hotel shut down a secondary school's Christmas ball because of drunken teenagers while groups of other children had to be taken to hospital after turning up drunk to a separate clubbing night.

This led North Yorkshire Police to team up with the Safer Communities Partnership, licensed premises and the Salvation Army, to launch Operation Beacon to ensure vulnerable children are not left unsupervised in the middle of Harrogate.