Blackpool Council considers alcohol advertising ban

Blackpool Council is considering a ban on all alcohol advertising outside pubs, off-licences and shops in a bid to tackle the town’s alcohol-related health problems.

As previously reported by db.com, the council is also running a consultation that will ban the sale of alcohol after 3am.

The council action comes after figures released in March showed high levels of alcohol-related liver mortality in the town. The Health and Social Care Information Centre published figures saying that Blackpool has the highest alcohol-related liver disease mortality rate among under 75s in England at 35 per 100,000 of the population.

Councillor Sarah Riding, who is cabinet member for health and wellbeing told the BBC that Blackpool had a “dreadful problem with alcohol.” The council said that it would also consider banning alcohol advertising on buses and billboards in the town.

Ms Riding told the BBC: “We know that alcohol can have a big effect on mortality rates, domestic violence and crime, and it’s an issue that we are working to address head-on through a number of methods.

“We want people to enjoy visiting the town, and accept that having a drink is part of that, however we do need to stop the detrimental impact that it can have on many people’s domestic lives as well.”

Martin Haywood, who runs a nightclub in Blackpool, said that he felt an advertising ban would have little impact, adding that he thought a lot of the problems in the town were caused by people drinking at home.

He said: There are serious health issues in Blackpool but from the pub perspective, we all work with the licensing authorities and police and we create environments where we can monitor people’s drinking.

“We feel the problem is people drinking at home, we can monitor it here, but we can’t monitor it at home.”