NO-ALCOHOL zones in Aberystwyth, Lampeter and Cardigan will continue until at least 2020, despite changes to legislation that will see current public places orders coming to an end in October.

The current Designated Public Place Orders (DPPOs) in the three towns, which ban alcohol and which police and councils say has had a “positive effect” on curbing anti-social behaviour, will be discontinued next month and replaced with Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs).

Ceredigion Council Cabinet has been asked to note a recommendation to implement the new orders by officers at a meeting on Tuesday, 5 September.

Under the new PSPO, “an offence is committed if a person fails to comply with a request from a police officer or an authorised officer not to consume alcohol in breach of the order”, or “refuses to surrender alcohol to the officer.”

Offenders are “liable to a summary conviction and a fine not exceeding £500.”

A consultation into the changes is not required for the transition to PSPO, and a similar test for the initial introduction of DPPOs in 2010 and 2014 will be followed.

Dyfed-Powys Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llewellyn and Cardigan, Aberystwyth and Lampeter town councils have all backed the move to continue the alcohol ban under the PSPO.

The new PSPOs will run until October 2020, with an option of a further two periods of three years each.

Aberystwyth councillor Ceredig Davies has welcomed the planned extension of the no alcohol zone.

“The consumption of alcohol and associated anti-social behaviour was a noticeable problem on the town’s streets earlier in the year, but things have improved with the police using the powers they have under the current alcohol ban,” he said.

“It was therefore of concern knowing that the ban was coming to its predetermined end and something I took up with both the police and the authorities’ Community Safety Officer.

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