Safer Drinking Scenes throughout Europe, learning from each other in order to prevent binge and heavy drinking

About the project: “Safer Drinking Scenes”

When in 2007 a working group within the French Forum for Urban Security (FFSU) was set up, we found out that cities had a specific need for information about how to manage their nightlife. The specific issue was that in some French cities there were young people drinking on the streets of the city centers. In some cities, these were not a small groups gathering, but massive groups - up to 3000 youngsters a night per city - so this became an important nuisance for inhabitants and a concern for local authorities. The problem starts once the bars close and, in the interstice before clubs open, the party continues in public spaces. What should local stakeholders do about this? was the question we tried to answer in the outcomes of the working group. “After the working group ended, some of the French cities wanted to continue sharing experiences with their European counterparts. This is how the idea grew to learn about drinking scenes and cultures in other cities and to disseminate this knowledge to policy makers and practitioners. Efus submitted a project proposal to the European Commission (EC) to answer this need of the cities. The project was approved and the “Safer Drinking Scenes” project started in January 2011.”

“In the first phase of the project we concentrate on the field research within the partner cities. During the second phase an expert committee will gather the findings and combine this with scientific research. From this analysis we will extract good practices and recommendations, which will serve as a toolkit for cities.” For example in France some cities have put in place efficient partnerships with barowners. In the toolkit, other European cities will read about these initiatives and get some knowledge around this good practice.

There are 10 partners in total:

• Anvers (BE)
• Bordeaux (FR)
• Brest (FR)
• La Rochelle (FR)
• Liège (BE)
• Reggio Emilia (IT)
• Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (UK)
• Stuttgart (DE)
• Nantes (FR)
• Rotterdam (NL)

“When we go out in the field; we start with a tour of the city in the daytime, to understand the urban, cultural, historical context and to get a visual picture of the different drinking scenes. The following day we listen and react to presentations on the actions put in place by the city, meet the local stakeholders and then we visit the drinking scenes again by night. On the third day we discuss and debrief the field visit. The final aim of these visits is to produce a published toolkit which will be widely disseminated. A multilingual website has also just been launched. For the moment it gives news about the project, summaries of field visits and best practices. Soon, it will include results of the research : available tools, advice and recommendations, together with a participative area enabling this new network to open up, exchange and work in a durable manner.” The results of this project will be presented in 2013 but research findings will be disseminated on the website throughout 2012.

Heavy and binge drinking throughout Europe

“There should be some statistics about binge drinking, but we are more interested in focusing on the culture behind drinking scenes in Europe.” Binge drinking is defined as the consumption of 5 drinks or more within a specific time span. “Throughout Europe it is well known that drinking alcohol happens in different patterns.” Binge drinking is different than heavy or excess alcohol intake. For example in the UK there is a culture of binge drinking that was linked with the closing hours of the pubs. In Spain there are so called ‘botellón’ (big bottles) parties. People drink in public spaces, and this finds its roots in the countries’ history and geography. Spain is historically a catholic country, with processions taking place in the streets. This combined with the mediterranean weather; people are used to being outside, enjoying leisure time, and celebrating with large quantities of alcohol. France has an in-between culture, where we have the reputation of drinking wine, enjoying the taste, and being initiatied to alcohol culture as a norm in the family circle. This is still the case and has caused for decades a big problem of public health, but patterns of youth binge drinking are now developping in France that are a matter of concern for authorities in terms of young people’s public health, but also public order.

It’s difficult to find one solution for heavy, excess or binge drinking which would benefit every European country as each one needs a different approach. Sometimes even cities within one country might require a different solution for these problems. To find a solution one has to understand the problem and comparing one’s problems with others is always extremely enriching. Similarities also can be found. The nature of human beings is universal: a young person in a coma or a young person breaking glass and starting a fight because of alcohol can benefit from public health or public order measures that are roughly the same in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, U.K. or the Netherlands. Usually drinking scenes remain quite constant within each city (within the city centre or town squares or inside a public park), so there is a pattern where the police and policy makers can look into immediately. The police can take action but it’s up to the government or local policy makers to take appropriate long term measures to solve this growing problem.

Focus on parents and schools

“We don’t focus on a specific age category. We want to look at how heavy drinking takes place within a city, regardless of what age the person drinking is. However, we have found that this type of drinking often concerns young people, mainly students. Sometimes we have found people as young as 13 years of age who are drinking heavily, which is quite concerning.” Parents often don’t know that their children are doing this. This is one of the main questions within all the cities: what role should parents take on in stopping heavy or binge drinking amongst youngsters? “There needs to be policy focused at parents but also at schools, as these have a large role in the solution as well. For example in Brest, a local school sent out a letter this year explaining what was happening in relation to heavy drinking, especially at the end of the final exam, the baccalaureate.” To celebrate, the students in Brest go to the beach to party. It has happened in the past that some of these students ended up in the hospital in coma. In the letters schools urged parents to keep an eye out for their children and to talk to their kids about the risks attached to heavy alcohol consumption.

Citizens have the right to sleep as well as to party at night

“There is a need to rethink the cities by night; we should focus on both sides of the coin.” On the one side, there are citizens who have the right to sleep and to feel safe within their own city. On the other side, there are people who have the right to enjoy themselves and to party within their city. Both sides have the right to be in their city and they need to cohabitate in it. “When we rethink the city we can come up with a number of recommendations. Question like: what do we say to both these categories of citizens? And what kind of local policy can be found to benefit each and make sure there is peaceful cohabitation? We hope that the outcome of this project will serve as inspiration for local and national governments to take action.”

The role of governments: the best action is local action

Governments have policies on health and they give ressources to local authorities so they can take action. In a subsidiarity principle - as in many issues of urban security - in the nightlife management, the best action is local action. So there is a lot to be done at this level, which means that national governments should give local authorities increased economic ressources and more freedom to take action against heavy and binge drinking, but also to promote health issues. One of the other issues we are focusing on in this project, asside from how parents can take part in this problem, we will also focus on the role of the alcohol industry. There is a paradox because they say that their product is not harmful, creating a positive message around partying, especially through desinhibition, and even some of them have invested in prevention for the preservation of their image; where in reality the case is that alcohol in large amounts is extremely harmful. Governments could put in place mechanisms to resist some lobbies within the alcohol industry.

About Mark Burton-Page and Efus

Mark Burton-Page studied political science in Paris and was interested in the multilateral approach and mixing academic with technical and political work. Through this interest he started working at Efus 3 years ago as an intern and is now employed fulltime there. Efus is a network of about 300 European cities, and also gathers NGO’s and experts from varied backgrounds. “We focus on questions of security and insecurity, safety, crime prevention and more. Our goal is to give a voice to the local level in Europe on matters of safety and security, and to promote the simple idea that cities should help cities, as that this can be done in many areas of knowledge”.

By Elizabeth Winkel, EUKN