Shop ban on high-strength booze cuts street drinking crime by 50% Insp Andrew Mason of Ipswich Police revealed that the force had already received around 50 enquiries about the Reducing the Strength campaign from forces and councils around the country. "We have put together an email pack to send to those who have contacted us," he said. Portsmouth and Lincoln have decided to appoint street drinking liaison officers like we have in PC John Alcock. I made a presentation in London to 140 officers and we have boroughs down there such as Hackney and Camden coming to see us to see what we are doing. The Co-op was the first store to back the scheme, removing super strength alcohol from sale in all 53 of its Suffolk stores. The high-street chain is now considering banishing such drinks from all 135 of its licensed premises across East Anglia. Roger Grosvenor, from the East of England Co-operative Society, said: "There has been no significant impact on turnover and even if there had been we would have still continued to support this initiative." Local residents said the campaign had had a tangible effect on anti-social behaviour. Mike Brain, an Ipswich neighbourhood watch co-ordinator, said: "In 2008/09 there were real problems in our area. Those have gone. We have very, very few instances now. Emily Robinson, director of campaigns at Alcohol Concern, backed the campaign but called on the government to introduce a minimum unit price, which she said would cut crime and save lives. "People are fed up dealing with the crime and anti social behaviour caused by people drinking cheap, strong booze and this fantastic campaign shows what a whole community can achieve when it comes together to tackle this problem," she said. But the reality is we need to deal with the root of the problem and that is the cheap, strong alcohol itself. David Cameron last month abandoned plans for a minimum alcohol price after several ministers argued that it would only serve to penalise responsible drinkers. In the budget, George Osbourne, the Chancellor, imposed a 1p cut in duty on a pint of beer, though other alcohol taxes are expected to rise. The Reducing the Strength scheme, which involved Ipswich Borough Council, Suffolk County Council and NHS Suffolk, formed part of a wider campaign to tackle issues surrounding street drinking called Start Afresh, which has resulted in a 20 per cent cut in the number of people defined as being part of the street-drinking community.