There's no booze in Bournville. If you want to drink liquor you have to bring it in from the surrounding areas of Stirchely and Selly Oak. It's creeping closer though. Everyone's favourite retail monolith Tesco is building a new Express store on the site of the old petrol station on Linden Road just outside the Bournville Village Trust estate boundaries so it doesn't come under the same restrictions as, say, The Green. The killer is they've applied for an alcohol license.
Naturally the local community, or at least the vocal part of it, is up in arms and there's a public meeting tomorrow (Sunday) at 3pm in the United Reform Church on Beaumont Road. Here's the letter that was distributed around the area.
You'll note, however, that the objection is focussed on under-age drinking leading to anti-social behaviour, most notably the vandalism to the rest house on Bournville Green last year. This is notable as there's been a simmering war on youth recently in the area. Living on the Green I have some sympathies with this - the buggers hang out by the college playing music from their cars and making an awful racket as I'm trying to watch a movie.
But that's the crutch of the matter. They've got a car. Selly Oak and Stirchley are not that far away even without a car and thanks to the dry zone there are loads of booze merchants there catering for us sensible adults who keep our boozing in doors.
The great thing about Bournville is it's like a quaint Cotswalds village but civilization is only a mile away and I'm sure most residents quite like this arrangement. The Tescos, while not particularly desirable as a business, is not going to impact on this in my opinion. It's just another chance for the elders to beat up on the kids who probably don't give a shit either way.
Anyway, I'm prepared to be proved wrong. Hopefully I'll be able to make that meeting (though it's going to be close). If nothing else it'll be a fascinating chance to see Bournville in action close up.
Naturally the local community, or at least the vocal part of it, is up in arms and there's a public meeting tomorrow (Sunday) at 3pm in the United Reform Church on Beaumont Road. Here's the letter that was distributed around the area.
You'll note, however, that the objection is focussed on under-age drinking leading to anti-social behaviour, most notably the vandalism to the rest house on Bournville Green last year. This is notable as there's been a simmering war on youth recently in the area. Living on the Green I have some sympathies with this - the buggers hang out by the college playing music from their cars and making an awful racket as I'm trying to watch a movie.
But that's the crutch of the matter. They've got a car. Selly Oak and Stirchley are not that far away even without a car and thanks to the dry zone there are loads of booze merchants there catering for us sensible adults who keep our boozing in doors.
The great thing about Bournville is it's like a quaint Cotswalds village but civilization is only a mile away and I'm sure most residents quite like this arrangement. The Tescos, while not particularly desirable as a business, is not going to impact on this in my opinion. It's just another chance for the elders to beat up on the kids who probably don't give a shit either way.
Anyway, I'm prepared to be proved wrong. Hopefully I'll be able to make that meeting (though it's going to be close). If nothing else it'll be a fascinating chance to see Bournville in action close up.
4 Comments:
If Bournville is a bit like a quaint Cotswold village then presumably there are no police to be seen? It's all very well everyone, including city councillors, complain about the "youth element" if no-one does anything about what the "youth element" gets away with. There should be no reason whatsoever why Tesco shouldn't sell alcohol just outside the Bournville Village limits but it is up to Tesco and the authorities to make sure that the laws are being obeyed. One, don't sell to minors, two if they are whooping it up on the Village Green, then call the police.
These are precisely the kind of things I dislike about communities like Bournville. Not content on shifting problems, like alcohol shops and pubs, into neighboring communities with a basic NIMBY philosophy they now want to go even further into a Not In My Neighbours Backyard either.
I doubt that a tescos would have the impact they are saying it would but openly advocating that the tesco to serve bournville be moved further away so some other community can absorb the possible negative impacts is shifty. Almost as shifty as pushing puritanical quaker values beyond the trust boundaries.
It's sort of funny that in the US poor policies are made out of fear for the children. In the UK it is out of fear of the children.
I was at the meeting - it did my head in. The other comments sum up the attitude that pervaded it. General view was that young people are a menace as they quite like a drink and worse still, they come here from outside the area. There was a long list cited of pre-existing anti-social behaviour problems (or 'kids messing about' as we used to call it) and no doubt they'll be cited again when this process moves to a public hearing of the licensing committee at which Tesco will be present (presuming the initial application is rejected which seemed likely).
I for one don't care too much if there's a booze outlet round the corner but the tone of the debate stinks. There were people my age (late 30s) and younger in that room who were talking about young people with a kind of fear in their voice. They should be ashamed of themselves. As you'd expect all of the following were mentioned at some point: house prices, teenage sex, drugs, the risk to young children (from what? paedophile boozers tanked up on Tesco's own brand lager?).
As I said it did my head in. Then an hour later some cheeky bugger came to my door to ask me to sign a petition about it. Christ I could do with a drink...
Dave, that's a great report - I hope a drink helped to clear the air a bit!
Us old fogeys do need to remember, once in a while, what it was like to be young. But then we did have the threat of a box around the ears from the local bobby when we were caught.
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