MEASURES to crack down on under-age drinking by scrapping a long-running scheme will be considered by councillors today.

On the agenda for an environment and regeneration scrutiny committee meeting are the council’s Proof of Age Scheme and work done to combat under-age drinking taken during the last financial year. Members will hear from senior trading standards officer Pete Brown that the current Proof of Age Scheme, administered and run by the council for the past 10 years to provide evidence of age to retailers, should be discontinued.

Officers have recommended to the committee that two nationally-recognised schemes, Citizencard and the Validate Scheme, should be promoted instead.

Mr Brown will also update members on under-age sales enforcement measures over the past year.

There have been joint actions with police officers to confiscate alcohol from under-age drinkers and to identify those who buy alcohol for under-age people – known as proxy purchasing.

A system for off-licenses to report proxy purchasing to Trading Standards or the police has been developed.

Visits to youth organisations to talk with young people about the problems associated with under-age drinking and visits with the police to on-licence premises to warn them of proposed test purchasing exercises have also taken place.

Other items on the agenda for the committee are a review of animal licensing for dog and cat boarding establishments.

Cllr Malcolm Williams, who will chair the meeting, said: “We welcome input from members of the public who may be affected by any recommendation we make and look forward to hearing from them at the meeting.”