LICENSING bosses have banned a cricket club from selling alcohol for three months following a spate of complaints about under-age drinking.
But Seaham Park Cricket Club in Byron Terrace, Seaham, County Durham, will be allowed to start trading normally again by mid April in time for the start of the new season, after two prominent committee members agreed to resign.
A meeting of Durham County Council’s Statutory Licensing committee was told yesterday that following mediation between the police and the cricket club, it had been agreed that the club could resume selling alcohol from April 15, provided club chairman Richard Humphrey and treasurer David Thynne stood down.
The hearing was told that the pair had agreed to do so.
Police had applied for the club’s premises licence to be revoked until the two members had offered their resignation. Afterwards they agreed to a three-month suspension.
The club has also been ordered to adapt a Challenge 25 scheme. All staff at the cricket club must seek “credible photographic proof of age evidence” from anyone trying to buy a drink who appears to be under 25. It is also barred from holding birthday parties for anyone under 21.
The tough new measures were imposed by the committee following claims that under-age drinking was rife.
Parents claim youngsters as young as 14 were drinking lager, cider and alcopops while they believed they were at the venue for cricket coaching.
And Sgt Tim Robson, licensing officer for Durham Police, reported that two committee members he believed were responsible for the youngsters’ welfare during one party at the club were so drunk they could hardly stand up straight.
Sgt Robson reported that police had made several visits to the club where they found up to 20 youngsters under the legal age openly drinking alcohol.
It was during one the visits, last September, police found the club crowded for a 16th birthday party, with the revellers – all well under the legal drinking age of 18 – knocking back lager and alcopops.
No representatives from the cricket club were present at yesterday’s short hearing, but licensing chairman Colin Carr said his committee was willing to allow the club to resume selling alcohol on April 15 so long as the two committee members who had agreed to stand down did not return.
