Glasgow Southside store granted alcohol licence – against the wishes of health chiefs

Glasgow City Council licensing chiefs have handed out licences to a Food Warehouse by Iceland on Auldhouse Retail Park in Pollokshaws, as well as an Iceland supermarket at Summerston Retail Park.

They made the decision even though Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership has concerns over high rates of alcohol related hospital stays in both areas.

The partnership’s spokeswoman told the licensing board how hospital visits in the nearest data zone to Auldhouse Retail Park were 137 per cent above the Scottish rate.

“We see an upward trend in the statistics,” she said. “We recommend you consider the health and wellbeing of the population.

“We’re seeing an increasing trend in this area that we’re not seeing in Glasgow overall.”

The spokeswoman said the neighbouring data zone to the Summerston application had alcohol related hospital stays which were 105 per cent above the Scottish average.

She told councillors that health chiefs had concerns over access to alcohol in these areas.

The health partnership also raised concerns over high mental health discharge rates but councillors said they couldn’t know whether all these cases were alcohol related.

Iceland’s legal representative told the committee the supermarkets were a “considerable draw” at retail parks across Scotland. He said alcohol is just “a small part of the Iceland offer”.

“In my view, you’ve got a good applicant. It is not the type of place that is likely to exacerbate any of the problems.”