Peace Bridgenot listed onbooze bye-law

LONDONDERRY’S strict anti-booze laws will be enforced on the new Peace Bridge despite the infrastructure not being officially named on Derry City Council’s 2009 bye law prohibiting the consumption of intoxicating liquor in public.

Both the Foyle and Craigavon Bridges are specifically named on the legislation but the Peace Bridge - which had not been completed - was omitted.

But a Council spokesperson told the Sentinel anyone caught drinking on the new bridge will be subject to prosecution and a potential £500 fine.

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This is in spite of the bridge’s omission from the official Bye-law which bans drinking in public.

The Council says the Peace Bridge is covered by the law because it opens onto the riverside walkway from Bay Road to Craigavon Bridge.

Both the Foyle Bridge and the Craigavon Bridge are specifically named as designated streets under the law.

The Sentinel asked if new infrastructure completed since 2009 such as the Peace Bridge, Ebrington Barracks and the new marina at Fort George are subject to the law’s provisions.

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A spokesperson said: “Derry City Council works with the PSNI and other groups to enforce the alcohol bye laws in public areas introduced in the city since October 2009.

“Prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in designated streets and public places, it currently covers almost 1500 named streets in the Council area.”

In relation to the Peace Bridge a spokesperson for the Council said: “It is our understanding that the newly erected Peace Bridge is covered by the existing legislation where a ‘street’ is defined so as to include any street, bridge, road, lane, footway, subway, square, court, alley or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, which is open to the public, and the doorways and entrances of premises abutting upon, and any ground adjoining and open to, a street shall be treated as forming part of the street.

“The schedule of the designated streets includes the Riverside walkway - from Bay Road to Craigavon Bridge - and as the bridge opens onto the Walkway, it is thus treated as forming part of that street.”

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