Sweat Box youth club in Wantage banned from breathalysing members by county council (From The Oxford Times)

Sweat Box youth club in Wantage banned from breathalysing members by county council

7:00am Wednesday 3rd March 2010

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A YOUTH centre forced to close because teenagers were getting drunk has had its relaunch postponed over plans to breathalyse members.

The Sweatbox, based at King Alfred’s Community and Sports College in Wantage, made national headlines two weeks ago when youth worker Garry Kingett vowed to randomly breathalyse teenagers from the relaunch — planned for last Friday.

However, Oxfordshire County Council postponed the relaunch after declaring alcohol testing was against its youth centre policy.

Mr Kingett, who was not available to talk to The Herald, previously said the idea came about after the centre was forced to close in December due to teenagers turning up “absolutely bladdered”.

He said: “We could not operate safely dealing with the number of young people abusing alcohol. They would get drunk off their trolley and come here on a Friday night.”

Mr Kingett also planned other measures to crack down on alcohol, such as a bus to safely transport youngsters to and from the centre, providing information on the dangers of alcohol, and getting help from Police Community Support Officers and Street Pastors.

Simon Spiers, vice-principal at King Alfred’s, said: “We fully supported Garry’s plan for the relaunch and are disappointed with the county council for devastating young people in Wantage and Grove. Underage drinking is a problem and good on Garry for trying to tackle it. It wasn’t just the breathalysers. Garry was going to introduce a range of measures and the plans are all on hold.”

Police inspector Ian Money said: “We support anything that reduces antisocial behaviour, but if the leader wants to make entry to the club conditional on a breathalyser test, then that must be agreed with the county council.”

The centre has 1,850 members, each of whom has to supply their parents’ contact details. About 200 visited the club each week.

County council spokesman Louise Mendonça said: “We are reviewing high attendance events at the centre. We want to ensure that we can offer safe and appropriate activities on Friday nights.

“We will not be using breathalysers in the Wantage youth centre or any other youth provision in the county and earlier reports about use of breathalysers were misleading in this respect.

“Alcohol testing is not undertaken in any young people’s centre in Oxfordshire. Our policy is to deliver a consistent approach to tackling issues around alcohol misuse by educating young people about the misuse of alcohol and drugs, and offering support and advice, and access to more specialist help when that is appropriate.”

She could not confirm when the club would reopen, but said the council hoped to resolve matters.

County communications officer Paul Smith said: “Given the issues that have been raised at Wantage Youth Centre, the county council wants to pause, take stock and have a sensible review before deciding the best way forward.”

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