Licensees buoyed by drink-drive backtrack
CONTROVERSIAL plans to lower the island's drink-drive limit have been dropped.
CONTROVERSIAL plans to lower the island's drink-drive limit have been dropped.
The proposal was included in the Policy Council's Bailiwick Alcohol Strategy, which went before the States in June only to be withdrawn.
Sources said the recommendation had now been removed from the document which is expected to be included in Friday's Billet.
Strategy steering group chairman Deputy Peter Roffey referred the Guernsey Press to Chief Minister Laurie Morgan, but he would not comment on the matter ahead of the Billet d'Etat's publication.
Guernsey Licensed Victuallers' Association joint vice-president Richard Cann said the change of heart would be good news.
'I think the GLVA would be very happy with the scrapping of the proposal,' he said.
'We believe that the drink-drive limit as it stands is adequate enough to do the job that it's there for. It does not prevent a person from having one drink on their way home or cause them worry the following morning when they have been drinking the night before when they might have been sensible and taken a taxi home.'
He said that some people would always drink-drive, whether a zero-tolerance policy was adopted or the current limit increased.
The change would have been bad news for the hospitality industry, but the GLVA did not advocate drink-driving in any way.
The proposal would have seen the limit lowered from 80mg to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
Hampshire Lodge licensee Peter Leigh also supported the status quo.
He said 'the sensible people' would have suffered most under the proposal, because a core element would always drink-drive regardless of the law.
'As it stands, people can have a glass of wine with their meal and not be over the limit,' he said.
'What they were proposing would have meant that those who had one drink were likely to be over the limit and the social side of life would have been devastated.'
The limit in Guernsey is currently the same as that in the UK, Ireland and Luxembourg. The proposed changes would have bought Guernsey into line with other European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Denmark. The drink-drive limit for blood in Sweden is 20mg.
The strategy proposal was removed from the June States meeting after the Home Department's plans for changes to the liquor licensing laws were also withdrawn to allow more consultation with the trade. The department said that this had been completed and the report would be included in Friday's Billet.
