Exposed: How easily youths can buy booze in Tunbridge Wells

By ccromie

A SHOCKING proportion of Tunbridge Wells retailers are willing to sell alcohol to under-18s, a Courier investigation has revealed.

We wanted to find out how easy it was for the teenagers to obtain alcohol after a council report identified underage drinking as the number-one problem on the town's streets.

We sent a 17-year-old into 12 town centre off-licences, shops and supermarkets to attempt to buy a bottle of wine.

And he was served with the alcohol by nine of them (See second image on the right to view the list of stores tested).

While some scanned the bottle and asked for payment without hesitation, others questioned his age. But they still served him anyway – despite his not carrying identification.

Two of those stores are investigating what went wrong, while several others pledged to tighten up their procedures.

The three retailers that refused the sale were Tesco Metro in Grosvenor Road, Oddbins in Mount Pleasant Rd and Sainsbury's supermarket in Linden Park Road.

But Sainsbury's garage on the same site sold drink to our 17-year-old tester, youth MP for Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks, Oliver Rawlinson.

He said he was shocked: "I am concerned that nine out of the 12 off-licences served me, even though I was underage.

"Supermarkets such as Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's clearly don't stick to their policy of checking all IDs before serving, for those who look under 25 years of age.

"As a national representative, I call on central Government to carefully consider a minimum price for alcohol."

Tony Williams, of alcohol misuse charity the Kenward Trust, said: "When shops and off-licences are prosecuted for selling drink to underage people, I really wish they would be named and shamed.

"I firmly believe that these people should be held to account. It's not only detrimental to the quality of life for residents of Tunbridge Wells but to the kids themselves."

The Kenward Trust runs an outreach project in Tunbridge Wells, the Grey Zebra, where volunteers educate underage drinkers in such hot spots as Calverley Grounds and the common.

NHS statistics show children's drinking has doubled since 1990 in the UK and Alcohol Concern has called for the introduction of a minimum price per unit of alcohol to tackle the problem.

The Courier asked Cllr Mike Tompsett, who chairs licensing in the borough, what he thought could be done locally to stop teenage drinking.

"Various organisations in the town are working hard to combat underage drinking and if it is not working it is very disappointing," he said.

"Our recent scrutiny review showed there are concerns about this so the Environment, Safer and Stronger Communities Select Committee has just set up an alcohol and youth review to look into this very thing and find out exactly what the situation is."

Have your say ... What do you think about shops selling drink to a 17-year-old? www.thisiskent.co.uk/tunbridgewells