COUNCILLORS have refused to back a call to introduce breath tests at Oxfordshire youth clubs, to the anger of some teenage users.
Wantage youth worker Garry Kingett suggested breathalysers would help stop alcohol problems at the town’s Sweatbox youth club on Friday nights.
The youth club, at King Alfred’s Community and Sports College in Springfield Road, was closed in December 2009 for five months after problems with drunken youngsters.
But county councillors said in a report: “Countywide policies and revised practices around entrance are adequate and there remains no reason to use breathalyser tests to determine whether a young person should be allowed access.”
It said other measures, including bag searches and door checks were enough.
But Alice Beck, 17, said: “The only reason was for other people’s safety – they never planned to do it to everybody.”
And King Alfred’s pupil Ester Kincova, 17, said she believed breath tests would have prevented problems at the Sweatbox.
The county council’s children’s services scrutiny committee will be asked to back the report on Wednesday.
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