Plastic glasses for Consett

6:14pm Tuesday 11th November 2008

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A POLICE officer is urging publicans in a North-East town to adopt plastic pint pots to reduce the amount of glassings in pubs.

Inspector Dave Turner has persuaded ten pubs and clubs in Consett, County Durham, to use polycarbonated glassware and is meeting other liecen holders to get them on board.

He was involved with a similar scheme in Durham, which saw the number of glassings fall to zero.

Insp Turner said: "This is a step towards making Consett a safer place to come and enjoy a night out.

"If you are drinking out of a polycarbonated glass then you feel a lot safer.

"They are so strong they will not break and cannot be used as a weapon.

"And they are so light they would not hurt anyone if they are thrown, unlike glasses."

So far The Turf, Trades, Meridian, Time, Seventies, Soviet Union Stateside, The Demi, The Braes and Blackhill Workingmen’s Club have agreed to use plastic glasses.

Insp Turner hopes to get The Coach and Horses, Chaplains, Decades and Red Velvet, all owned by businessman Sonny Gill, to back the scheme.

The men are yet to meet but Mr Gill was reluctant to commit himself when contacted by the Northern Echo.

He said: "I do not think there is a problem when you think about the number of glassings that happen.

"We have got all sorts of procedures in place to make sure that the sort of people who do this do not get in to the venues."

Insp Turner hopes to convince Mr Gill that polycarbonated glassware is the way forward and has a meeting with Wetherspoon’s on Friday.