A NIGHTCLUB in the Cheshire town of Warrington has been heavily criticised for offering students spirits for as little as ten pence per drink and only twenty pence for a pint.

The Showbar club has been running a promotion called Two Bob Tuesdays, as a result of an apparent price war between the town’s venue owners. Jenny Keep, manager of Showbar, defended the nights. She told The Sun, “It’s really a student night. It’ll be £5 to get in and ten pence a drink. They will only be allowed to have one drink at a time. It’s not irresponsible.

 “Other places have had promotions at one pence a time – now that’s irresponsible.”The promotion has been condemned by group Alcohol Concern, who want it banned. Don Shenker, the chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said, “This shouldn’t be allowed. It clearly incentivises drinking irresponsibly.”Here in Scotland, regulations on the sale of alcohol are much stricter. The Alcohol, Etc. (Scotland) Act was passed in 2010, aimed at restricting sale of cheap alcohol in large amounts, such as in buy-one-get-one-free offers.

Such deals have been discontinued in Edinburgh itself since 2009, when 40 nightclubs voluntarily agreed to halt promotions of that nature as part of the Unight scheme. Unight is a joint programme between Lothian & Borders Police, Edinburgh City Council and the city’s evening venues with the aim of increasing safety and reducing antisocial behaviour in the city.

At the time, justice secretary Kenny McAskill heralded the move as “the end to Happy Hours”.One measure from the 2010 Alcohol Act comes into effect this weekend. Scotland’s supermarkets will now be legally required to check the identification of anyone purchasing alcohol who appears to be younger than 25, as part of the nationwide ‘Challenge 25’ scheme.  

 Dr Evelyn Gillan, Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, praised the change: “The Alcohol Act contains a range of measures which will contribute to reducing harmful consumption of alcohol in Scotland. “‘Challenge 25’ will make it tougher for young people under the legal drinking age to buy alcohol, and ending irresponsible promotions in off-sales should discourage people from buying more alcohol than they intended. 

 “These measures will be even more effective when minimum unit pricing is finally introduced. If we want to reduce the level of alcohol-related harm in Scotland, we need to reduce overall alcohol consumption. Evidence shows that price increases reduce consumption, and consequently harm. As well as saving lives, minimum pricing would also save the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds in NHS, crime and employment costs.”The Scottish Health Survey 2010 was published last Tuesday.

It found that although there was no significant change in the proportion of men drinking above the recommended regular daily limit between 2003 and 2010, the proportion of women doing so fell by four per cent. 

 The proportions drinking in excess of recommended weekly alcohol limits declined between 2003 and 2010, from 33 per cent to 27 per cent of men and from 23 per cent to 18 per cent of women – suggesting an improving, but continuing trend of binge drinking in Scotland.Philippa Faulkner, the Vice President of Services for Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) told The Student that EUSA would continue to promote responsible drinking by Edinburgh students in the light of the publicity surrounding the drinks prices at the Warrington club’s student night.

She said,  “EUSA really encourages responsible drinking. We do not serve people who are underage and encourage students to have a good time but understand their limits. We also make sure that students are safe when they leave our venues after a night out and I think this is what makes us particularly different to a lot of other venues in Edinburgh.”