An Aberdeen councillor has called for a review of the city’s six-year-old drinking bylaw.
The city council applied to the Scottish Government for the law in 2009 which bans people from drinking alcohol in public spaces.
Council chiefs have voted to relax it numerous times since, most recently at this year’s Christmas village on Union Terrace.
But now Kingswells, Sheddocksley and Summerhill councillor David Cameron, who sits on the council’s licensing board, says it is time to look again at the policy as part of the city’s bid to introduce “café culture” to the north-east.
His motion for a review of the law will be debated at a full council meeting on Wednesday.
He said: “This bylaw has been in place since I became a councillor three years ago and in that time we’ve been trying to look at café culture in the city.
“If you look at different cities or European capitals people can drink in public but you don’t see drunks falling about the streets.
“I don’t know if we expect too little of Aberdeen but I don’t think going against the bylaw would necessarily lead to people stumbling about Union Street with six packs of Tennants Super.
“I think the binge drinking culture among young people is changing, even from when this was brought in. The law now may just be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
“I’m not saying we should definitely go for it but I do think we should speak to the police and NHS and find out how successful it’s been and whether we still need it.
“With everything going on at Union Terrace now might just be the perfect time.”