Designated public places orders (DPPOs) (sometimes called alcohol control areas or zones) are a tool that can be used by local authorities to deal with the problems of anti-social alcohol drinking in public places.
Once a DPPO is in place the police can use their confiscation powers to enforce the restriction. It is not an offence to consume alcohol within a designated area, but failure to comply with an officer's requests to stop drinking and surrender alcohol without reasonable excuse is.
DPPOs are available in areas that have experienced alcohol-related anti-social behaviour problems. They have been used across the country in areas ranging from a single street or park, to town centre or city-wide areas.
There are too many stories in local media about proposed or agreed DPPOs to report separately. So for some time I have simply been tagging them using the social bookmarking service del.icio.us. You can see all the tagged stories here.
Further information
The new guidnace is a useful outline for any local authority about to go through the proccess of setting up a DPPO, although there won't be many left soon??!! Perhaps all police should have the discretionary power to confiscate alcohol-they have far more difficult decisions to make on a daily basis than as to whether someone drinking is behaving anti-socially or not?!!?
Posted by: james morris | Tuesday, October 02, 2007 at 05:59 PM