Pubs urged to switch to plastic glasses

ALL Scunthorpe's town centre venues should adopt plastic glasses, officials have said.

The call comes just after the Home Office announced plans to ban pint glasses outright and replace them with shatterproof plastic versions.

The Government claims the move will help curb the number of violent attacks where broken glasses are used as a weapon.

A number of local bars and pubs are ahead of the game, with the safety vessels first introduced in December last year.

Numbers of glassings halved immediately, with two throughout December 2008 and January 2009 compared with five in the same period the pervious year.

According to anecdotal evidence supplied by police, numbers have remained very low since.

Pc Steven Turner, licensing officer, said the plastics, known as polycarbonates, were popular with police and licensees.

"We are trying to encourage more and more premises to adopt them, obviously we can't force them and appreciate it does cost a fair bit to change over.

"But once they're bought the indication is that pubs benefit, because with glass more has to be spent on renewing stock, replacing dance floors and there are fewer breakages.

"They're much safer for staff as well.

"I think the only problem has been that not everything the venues use comes in a plastic version yet."

So far polycarbonates have been embraced at Love2Love and Studio 25, The Showboat, Der Schnapps Bar and Zest, all of which are based in Scunthorpe town centre.

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