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Aberystwyth does not have a blanket ban on drinking alcohol in public. Ceredigion County Council’s Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) covers specified, mapped public areas; drinking there is not, by itself, an offence. A person can commit an offence by failing, without reasonable excuse, to comply with an officer’s request to stop drinking or hand over alcohol. The council says the current order runs through October 19, 2026.
What Aberystwyth’s “booze ban” actually prohibits
The restriction is a PSPO for designated public places, not a townwide prohibition on alcohol. The council’s published guidance says: “However, it is an offence to fail to comply with a request made by the police to cease drinking or to surrender alcohol, without reasonable excuse.” Enforcement is discretionary: drinking alone does not automatically constitute a breach.
The council says a breach may result in arrest and a fine of up to £500. That is the maximum stated in its guidance, not an automatic penalty for simply having or drinking alcohol in public.
Where the order applies—and what is excluded
The order applies only within the area defined by its schedule and map. Ceredigion County Council describes the relevant public places broadly as including streets, pavements, grassed areas, pedestrian and seating areas, parks and car parks. Check the council’s Drinking Alcohol in Public Places guidance and the map in the Aberystwyth Alcohol (Consumption in Public Space Protection) Order 2017 to determine whether a particular spot is inside the boundary.
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The council’s guidance excludes places where alcohol consumption is authorised by a licence, such as pubs and clubs, and premises covered by a Temporary Event Notice. The PSPO is therefore not a general ban on drinking at licensed venues.
How the order is enforced
Under the council’s guidance, the relevant offence is failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a police request to stop drinking or surrender alcohol. This distinction matters: the order gives officers a means to intervene in the designated area, rather than making every instance of public drinking an offence in its own right. The guidance says a breach may lead to arrest and a fine of up to £500.
How long the order lasts
Ceredigion County Council says the alcohol-consumption orders for designated areas in Aberystwyth, Cardigan and Lampeter began on October 20, 2017, were renewed in 2020 and again in 2023, and currently continue through October 19, 2026. The council’s Community Safety Strategy 2024–2027 also describes the orders as extended until 2026. The material available here does not establish whether a successor order applies after October 19, 2026, so the post-expiry position should be checked with the council.
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In the 2017 order, the council said it considered public drinking and intoxication associated with anti-social behaviour, crime, harassment and intimidation, and that the activity had a detrimental effect on local quality of life. That is the council’s stated rationale in the order, not independent proof that public drinking caused those outcomes or that the PSPO reduced them. The later community safety strategy describes the purpose as reducing anti-social behaviour associated with excessive drinking.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the “wild west” reports do—and do not—show
A report published by Flyingeze on October 3, 2026, reproducing a Sun report, describes residents supporting an extension and quotes students who say groups drinking in public have led to unwanted attention and made them feel unsafe. Those accounts convey the interviewees’ experiences; they are not representative survey results.
The same report attributes the phrase “wild west” and the description “drunk men were dominating the centre of Aberystwyth” to Alun Williams, councillor for Aberystwyth Morfa a Glais. It also reports that the local police commander characterized recorded incidents in which alcohol contributed as “a relatively low number.” The report does not supply the underlying incident count, time period or comparison, and the sources cited here do not establish a before-and-after evaluation of the order. These statements should therefore be understood as attributed accounts, not measures of townwide prevalence or proof of the order’s effect.
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