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Action to protect drinkers on Shrewsbury river routes
Friday 15th October 2010, 11:29AM BST.
A major drive to stop people falling into the River Severn in Shrewsbury has been launched amid serious concerns about the “disturbing” number of deaths in recent years.
It follows the deaths of more than 20 people in the river across Shropshire over the past six years, a number of which were in the Shrewsbury area.
Nine of these involved people who had consumed large amounts of alcohol and were walking home alone, police said.
Now licensees at pubs, nightclub and other entertainment venues in the town are being urged to look out for people who have drunk a lot of alcohol and ensure they get home safely.
The new scheme has been introduced and police are hoping it will help reduce the number of people ending up in the river.
Tony Mantle, police licensing officer for Shropshire, said: “Over the past few years, there has been a disturbing number of deaths in the River Severn close to the town centre.”
He said the incidents have mostly involved young adults in the 18 to 24 age group, who had been drinking heavily, sometimes alone, in one or more of the town’s venues.
“Consequently, they have left the pub or club, presumably intending to walk home,” said Mr Mantle.
“Sadly, they did not reach their destination.”
The licensing chief said police have adopted an idea called “Reunite”, put forward by door staff providers, Active Security Solutions.
Mr Mantle said: “We are asking door staff and venue operators to look out for people in a worrying state through drink. If they are identified as being excessively drunk or vulnerable in some way, I am asking the staff to intervene.”
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This is a complete nonsense.
Once again, we are witnessing the abdication of individual responsibility and putting the onus on other people to look after the idiots who can’t hold their drink.
I was watching some young lad on TV the other day claiming that a Facebook page advocating the erection of protective barriers had now got a huge following.
Well here’s a suggestion: price up the protective measures and then divide that large figure by the number of supporters on that Facebook page. Then, ask each of those supporters to send that amount of money to the council to pay for the measures which they passionately support.
I imagine that there would be a lot less clamouring for barriers and protection if the people being protected were the ones asked to pay for the work rather than the poor taxpayers.
Here’s another idea to protect drunk idiots from falling into the Severn: get a taxi home.
And pay for it yourself.
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Hear, hear!
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+1
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I cannot believe this. A typical knee jerk reaction.
20 deaths in the Severn in Shropshire, SOME of them in the Shrewsbury area, and 9 of these deaths involved alcohol, in the last 6 years.
What, I wonder, are the figures for road deaths in the same period.
Now someone expects the alcohol purveyors to look out for over indulgence and ensure they get home safely. HOW???. Do they provide free transport to wherever these people live?. Ridiculous!!.
As tragic as these deaths are there is no-one to blame but themselves. I wonder how many people walk by the river in 6 years, and how on earth do you fall in by accident?. Those who did so were obviously too close. ALL rivers are dangerous, is the answer to fence off every mile of river in the country, and then perhaps, post watchers to ensure that nobody climbs over said fences?.
I have said before on this subject that the answer is education in alcohol consumption. At 18 years plus in age, anyone who drinks so much that they have no control over their actions is just asking for trouble. If they staggered into the road and got hit by a bus, would there be campaign to ban buses?.
I do have sympathy for people who have lost someone this way, but stop trying to shift the blame.
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Hear, hear again! Common sense has to prevail whether drunk or not. But not at our expense please.
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Yes..but what is this ‘major drive’? I see the word ‘action’ in the headline and later the word ‘urged’, any information forthcoming on what the urging will involve?
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I hope the pubs and clubs are funding this “major drive” rather than me!
Could also be worth reminding licensees that it is actually illegal for them to serve alcohol to people who are already drunk.
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How on earth are licensees supposed to ensure drinkers get home safely? Can people not take responsibility for themselves anymore?
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The answer is close down all the pubs in Shrewsbury and erect 20ft fences at bridges and along the banks of the severn.
Welcome to mamby pamby land!
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Perhaps Lord Young would like to know as his report “Common Sense, Common Safety” calls for a shake-up of health and safety measures to an end senseless rules and regulations justifies
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11550281
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Surely we need to discover how all these people have ended up in the river? Are the Police really satisfied that they are not victims of some one else’s deeds? I’m not convinced we don’t have someone pushing these people in to the river when they are drunk. There’s just too many of them.
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Er, surely we did discover how all the people ended up in the river, otherwise the coroner’s report for any particular death would have been inconclusive.
If the coroner was not satisfied that the cause of death was an accident, his report would say so and one imagines that the police would act appropriately.
By raising your doubts, you are another person blaming other people for these deaths – murderers at large throwing people into the river, rather than victims with too much drink in them.
However, if you really do feel that there’s a serial murderer at loose, then you should report your suspicions to the police, together with any evidence that you may have that led you to this conclusion.
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Impossible to police. The individual should take responsibility for their actions, not get absolutely drunk and expect others to look after them. At the very least a group of friends who go out together should go home together.
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There are obviously different reasons why these people ended up in the river, suicide is probable for some of them and so a barrier would not be of much help.
However there are likely some who fell in by accident and had there been a railing (no one expects or desires a massive fence)along the river in the town area it may have prevented their death. Surely their lives are worth saving even if they have had too much to drink?
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Julian, I believe you are correct, it is indeed an offence, and, no doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong, I also thought it was an offence to be drunk in a public place. I assume the law classes town streets and pathways as public places, and this is part of the problem, no bobbies on the street to stamp it out. In my youth I used to frequent Shrewsbury pubs, and, on leaving, you could not walk 100 yards without meeting the long arm of the law, usually in pairs. Now, you may be lucky to see them every hour or so cruising past in their cars.
At the risk of being boring, I will say again, there should be some way of educating these people on the dangers of too much alcohol. We have all seen the under age mob downing lager on the street, bought from the supermarket or cheap booze shop, surely the parents must know what they have been up to, but apparently they don’t care. Then, when a tragedy occurs, they blame everyone and everything for it.
We need a policy of E@E, education and enforcement, not hundreds of miles of pointless fencing.
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How long has the river been there?
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Installed as a water feature under the last government – total waste of money if you ask me !
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Typical over reaction by the police and council. Not being funny but if i’m working in a busy town centre pub on a saturday night take montgomerys tower for instance, the last thing i’m going to be worried about is a drunken under age drinker. I going to be that busy serving i won’t be bothered by it. As for door staff why should they look out for people like that, all they would do is chuck them out of the pub and leave them be. Once you start interfering with someone and then something happens you are going to be right in it up to your neck. So as a busy barman i can tell you now, barstaff in shrewsbury will not bother with this. Its just the powers that be being seen as ‘doing something’.
At the end of the day the people drinking and going by the river should have some common sense!
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People will always drink to much a person can look fine when in the pub then outside in the fresh air a different story. Booze and water do not mix and accidents happen but that does not need a knee jerk reaction all very stupid .People will always get drunk and fall in the river,lake,sea etc that’s life and unfortunate for the person it happens to and their family.
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Finch says “Booze and water do not mix”. What utter rubbish. I usually take water with my Scotch!!
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I cant believe Wall is dumb enough to think I was not talking about water in rivers etc.
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I think he was being facetious!
Otherwise known as sarcastic humour!
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perhaps the offies could also sell swimbands
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If you cant look after yourself then you should have a babysitter or live in Shelton!! Oh and not drinking!!
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Maybe a safety fence should be put up all around the coast of the UK ‘just in case’ – Go Figure
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Maybe the Wrekin should be flattened because someone may get drunk and fall off it..
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Did I miss something, is it suddenly April 1st?
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The last 5 comments may seem flippant, but there is a lot of sense to be found there. Where do you stop?
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Will West Mercia Police be introducing the same silly initiative in Hereford and Worcester that also have the River Severn running through their cities and where there is also a very busy nightlife?
I think that Mr Mantle would be best advised to concentrate on policing the huge swell in drunken loutish behaviour in Shrewsbury town centre than trying to pioneer a frankly pathetic and non starting project which is as you will see from the above comments is doomed to failure.
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Wye Hereford..
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Sorry spencer.
You are indeed right the Wye does run through Hereford. But are they introducing this stupid idea there?
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No, my apology, its bad enough when you get the punctuation police on here, the last thing we need is a river dork like myself..
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Spencer,
I think you’ll find there are 3 dots in an ellipsis.
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I think I will pour a large gin and sit in my bed. Much safer than the nasty river.
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I have a simple solution, everyone leaving a pub or club could be breathalysed and those failing would then be strapped into a life jacket with a 12 hour timelock on it. Just downstream from the town we could have net across the river and that way if they fall in on the way home they would float and be stopped by the net! Simples!!
Though maybe we should fence off the roads or ban all traffic in case they get run over on the way to the river. What happens if they trip and bang their heads? Oh! I know rubber pavements!
Seriously where does pesonal responsibility for ones actions end? Its not really the alchol or the river that kills people its their own irresponsibility.
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Mr Mantle said: “We are asking door staff and venue operators to look out for people in a worrying state through drink’
Er……… Weekend nights in town and EVERYONE is in that state!
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Hi all, i have the answer to the problem !
Fill the river in, it would also solve your flooding problems. Get a life after all your born to die just enjoy the bit in between responsibly or you might just die a bit quicker lol.
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I publically apologise for my lack of proper use of the English language and punctuation due to the fact that whilst British by birth I do because of living in Cyprus for many years now speak mainly Greek.
I from time to time hate making comparisons between life in the UK and here in Cyprus but on this ocassion I really feel that I have to.
Life here is generally enjoyed with good faith good food good health care and good education. And at a fraction of the cost of that in the UK.
We certainly do not have time for over protecting those who do not know for whatever reason be it drunkeness or what the difference between the path home and the river. We leave that to to an age old skill called ‘common sense’.
We do not waste our local council financing on what I believe you call ‘risk assessment’ but instead because we are not scared stiff of our own shadows of being sued leave personal risk assessment to those who take silly ill advised and often drink driven actions which sometimes sadly cost them their lives.
My household in our village pays a total of €187.00 (currenty £164.00) a year in council tax for: REAL local policing, refuge collection twice a week, road sweeping, street lighting, and of course our cherished and well performing local primary school that incidently has no lessons in ‘staying away from the river’.
I fear that you have already lost a great deal of finance to the expense of what really really matters in my dear old county of Shropshire to the over inflated salaries of those that hide with totally unecessary jobs in the Shirehall.
Apologies again for my poor English.
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