By Jenni Davidson
Shops and off licences in Brighton and Hove will be asked to sign up to a voluntary agreement not to sell beers, lagers and ciders above 6% alcohol by volume (abv).
Super-strength alcoholic drinks are believed to cause problems with street drinking and anti-social behaviour.
Since Ipswich introduced a similar ban a year ago incidents of street drinking have dropped by nearly 50% from 191 to 94 compared to the previous year.
Nearly two thirds of Ipswich’s shops signed up to the voluntary project.
Councillor Jeane Lepper who proposed the motion, said that there was a problem with people ‘pre-loading’ before going out to drink in bars and clubs.
“I believe that many retailers would welcome a voluntary agreement, as it can benefit their businesses,” she said.
“It would lead to a reduction of anti-social behaviour outside their premises and enhance their reputations as responsible traders.”
Councillor Mo Marsh added that one bottle of super-strength can contain 22 units of alcohol, which is around the recommended maximum intake for one week.
Councillors across all three parties agreed to a motion at a council meeting on Thursday 24 October.
Councillor Stephanie Powell explained that that 60 businesses had already volunteered to take high strength alcohol off their shelves.
A report on the work done so far will be brought to the meeting of the Licensing Committee on 21 November.
The Sensible on Strength campaign is to be officially launched at that meeting and a progress report brought to the committee in March 2014.
