Top Tory's booze pledge

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has promised Kidderminster licensees that a Conservative government would look at the problems caused by 24-hour sales of alcohol at garages and supermarkets.

Publicans in the town say they are unfairly blamed for nuisance caused by underage drinkers.

Kate Moore, association chairman of the Kidderminster Licensee Association, called for action to contain the sales of alcohol by traders who, she said, had little or no training in dealing with problems.

Mr Davis pledged that the issue would be considered.

He also told police officers that Conservatives would introduce a bill to reduce bureaucracy and form-filling.

It would lead to an effective doubling of the number of police on the streets, he said.

His comments followed a visit to the Broadwaters policing base in the Horsefair area of the town where police and Community Support Officers have been successful in reducing anti-social behaviour by as much as 90 per cent since it officially opened in April.

The base has been created from a two-bedroom ground-floor flat in one of three multi-storey tower blocks.

Mr Davis, who was touring Worcestershire, said a Conservative government would show zero-tolerance to law breakers and wage a crackdown on drugs. He said: "Things that police forces have no need to do will go. Some officers find themselves looking at three-and-a-half hours of form-filling after an arrest, and we will be looking at what can be eliminated. The first bill we will introduce will be to reduce bureaucracy, which would effectively double the number of police on the streets."

He said the second thing to be looked at would be to ensure discipline was followed through schools to help in the fight against drugs.

Mr Davis said he was in favour of "intelligent policing" such as local police persuading parents to allow their youngsters to paint over the graffiti they had daubed in blocks of flats.

He hailed it as a return to "a good old-fashioned common-sense approach".