Alcohol overprovision decision deferred

Orkney’s local licensing forum could be set to recommend that Kirkwall has an overprovision of premises selling alcohol.

The forum acts as an advisory body to the local licensing board who are responsible for determining applications.

At a meeting on Thursday, a report presented to the forum highlighted that Orkney has the third highest rate of hospital admissions due to alcohol, as well as one of the highest number of licensed premises per head of population in Scotland.

Police representative on the forum, and acting chairman, chief inspector Les Donaldson said: “I move that overprovision does exist in Kirkwall, and we make that recommendation to the licensing board.”

However, the forum deferred its decision pending a breakdown on the types of licensed premises in the town.