Ongoing research: last updated 1 February 2012
24 June 2005 - Birmingham Evening Mail (Neil Elkes)
No half measures!
Boozy youngsters are openly snubbing an alcohol exclusion zone - by drinking on the opposite side of the road.
Police were today seeking to extend the Selly Oak alcohol-free zone in a bid to stop the anti-social yobs flouting the law.
The border of the current zone runs along the middle of Bristol Road, at Bournbrook, meaning people are banned from drinking on one side but not the other.
Sgt Alex Poyner, of Bournville Lane Police Station, said: "People just stand on the appropriate side of the road and drink alcohol freely.
"They know that at the moment they can do so and are openly flouting the law." Sgt Poyner, backed by two local residents groups, the TARA Bournbrook Neighbourhood Forum and Bournbrook Community Safety Project, is calling for the zone to be extended over the entire Selly Oak Council ward, including Selly Oak Park and the nearby hospital.
Selly Oak Hospital security manager Ian Harrison said staff have been plagued by drunken yobs.
He said: "On an increasing basis we see youths openly drinking from cans as they walk through the site.
"They are not just content in drinking but cause a considerable amount of damage, regularly use bad and offensive language, urinate and cause graffiti to hospital buildings."
City licensing chiefs will also consider making Cotteridge Park an alcohol-free zone to combat anti-social behaviour at their meeting today.
But Hannah Jones, a 21-year-old student who works at the Selly Sausage cafe, said her fellow students should not be penalised.
"The students are not a problem, some drink outside because their flats and houses don't have a garden.
"The police should concentrate on the underage drinking," she said.
Paperboy Andrew French, of George Road, said he has enjoyed a drink with friends in nearby Selly Park.
The 19-year-old said he was not happy about the ban: "I have trouble getting served in the pub so I sometimes drink in the park."
But Barry Toon, of the Bournbrook Community Safety Project backing the extension, said: "The alcohol-free zone as it stands has been successful, but it makes a mockery of the ban when you can just cross the road to get round it.
"By extending the zone to cover the whole of Selly Oak, it will prevent the displacement of the problem."
