A major supermarket’s store in Preston could be stripped of its licence to serve alcohol by the council later this month.

Tesco has been hauled before Preston City Council’s licensing sub committee after a “number of incidents” relating to alcohol have been raised by police.

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The store within Tulketh Mill’s retail units on Blackpool Road, Ashton, was granted permission to serve alcohol in April last year but police want this to be reviewed.

Police initially objected to the application last February but after strict conditions were imposed on Tesco they withdrew their objection, but now police feel the prevention of crime and disorder is not being maintained by the retailer.

The current licence allows the sale of alcohol from 6am to 11pm every day.

Tulketh ward councillor and leader of the council Peter Rankin said residents had raised issues with the Tesco store at community meetings.

He said: “We had complaints at PACT meetings by residents about children buying and stealing alcohol from the store.

“I have to say that more recently they have got their act together. They now have a security guy and the petty pilfering of alcohol by kids seems to have stopped.”

Cllr Rankin said before Christmas he had raised concerns with the store manager and police about a “lackadaisical” approach of Tesco towards alcohol sales.

He said this resulted in the alcohol section being moved away from the door of the store and nearer the check-out.

A spokeswoman for Tesco said: “We are aware of these concerns and are working with the police to try to resolve them.

“We have a strict Think 25 policy in place, which means that checkout staff are automatically reminded to check the age of anyone who looks under 25 of those trying to buy alcohol.

“All of our staff at the store have recently undergone additional training on this policy.”

Blog Preston has contacted Lancashire Police for a comment but had not heard from them by the time of publication.

The licensing sub committee have a number of options available to them, including remove the store’s ability to sell alcohol altogether. They can also suspend the sale of alcohol for three months or impose tougher conditions on the retailer for selling alcohol or shorten the hours of sale.

The sub committee will meet on Friday 25th May at the Town Hall from 10am to decide.

View the reports relating to this sub committee meeting on the council website.

Image credit to Tony Worrall

Do you live in the area? What do you think about the decision to review the licence? Let us know your views in the comments below