DERBY - CITY OF PUBS

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Prime Minister Tony Blair said binge drinking was becoming "the new British disease" and called for police and the drinks industry to take action. Alcohol-fuelled violence has soared in towns and cities across the country and Mr Blair has asked the industry to contribute to the cost of late-night policing.

But according to the Derby branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, this could lead to an increase in the price of alcohol, as breweries hit customers to foot the policing bill. Police in Derby are already set to benefit from drinks industry funding. They originally opposed to the £83m Riverlights project saying the extra venues would put a serious strain on their resources.

However, they dropped their opposition after the developer, MetroHolst, offered to cover any extra policing costs. Mr Blair said, "The Government is working with the industry to develop a social responsibility scheme, which may include some financial contribution to the costs of policing." He added that the money could also pay for additional community support officers, bus services or street cleaning.

Chief Inspector Brian McKeown, who is in charge of police operations in Derby, said, "We welcome additional funding from any source. It's in the pubs' interest to work with us to reduce alcohol-related violence inside and outside their premises. Crime in the city centre forms 20% of all crime in Derby. We would like to provide more high-visiblity staff in that area."

Police want landlords in parts of the north-east of England to ban the sale of alcohol to people under 21. Durham Police say the radical move will help cut drink-related crime during the summer months. But the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations (FLVA), which represents self-employed licensees, described the move as "draconian". The Durham force is planning high-visibility street patrols, coupled with unannounced visits to pubs and clubs. In an effort to target the problem of young adults buying drink on behalf of under-18s, licensees are being asked to sign up to a "21 or over scheme" which only allows those aged 21 and above to buy alcohol.

A force spokesman said, "The misuse of alcohol has a direct impact on the quality of life of those living both in the vicinity of licensed premises and beyond. Throughout this campaign we will be increasing uniformed patrols around pubs, clubs and off-licenses and, behind the scenes, we will be working closely with licensees to ensure they are doing what they can to improve the situation." He said the campaign will focus on Durham City and the south of the county.

But John Hudson, president of the FLVA, and who runs the Crossways Hotel in Thornley, County Durham, said, "This is very draconian. There is no way licensees will be able to administer this effectively and it could potentially lose them a lot of money. It is not up to the police to pick on the young people, the majority of whom are good and well-behaved. It is a stupid idea. What we need are more police on the beat. We have long called for a national ID card, which would go a long way to solving the problem of under-age youngsters buying alcohol."

But the Durham Police spokesman said, "Licensees should be employing staff who are properly trained and able to deal responsibly with both under-age drinkers and those customers who shouldn't be served more drink because they are already drunk. Irresponsible drinks promotions such as 'buy one get one free' also need curtailing. There are lots of ways licensees can cut the risk of disorder both on their premises and in the wider community once drinkers have left. Premises should not be overcrowded and, at the end of the night, when people are preparing to leave for home their mood can be influenced through changes to music and lighting. We'll be working with licensees and advising them on areas needing improvement."

Police are clamping down on pubs and clubs whose CCTV systems are not up to scratch and have issued a list of objections to a number of premises in the city, which are attempting to renew their public entertainments licences. The venues concerned are Santanda, The Old Institute, the Gatehouse, Gaslight Bar, Moods, the Friary, Revolution, Zanzibar, McClusky's and Edens.

If the licence applications were rejected, the respective pubs and clubs, described as "high risk licensed premises" by the police, would not be permitted to play music or allow dancing. Police are encouraging all venues to install modern, digital CCTV systems as opposed to the cheaper and grainier analogue systems.

Most of the nine venues concerned have been criticised for their "poor quality" images. In the case of Santanda, police were unable to view any recorded images during their inspection because the equipment was faulty. A spokeswoman for the city council's licensing department said she was "surprised" at the high level of police objections to the latest batch of renewal applications.

A government move to give councils the responsibility to grant liquor licences is set to put Derby City Council more than £150,000 out of pocket. Councils across the country will take over responsibility for liquor licensing from magistrates. As a result, Derby City Council estimates that it needs to initially employ five new staff to cover licence applications from up to 1,200 premises in the city. It is estimated that in the first 14 months of the change, additional costs to the council will exceed £249,000.

Additional income is only expected to amount to £96,000. Council leader Maurice Burgess said, "This is another good example of how this Labour Government expects us to do things without giving us the funding. We can't identify quite where the money will come from but it's something that we'll have to do." The council's cabinet is to set up a £200,000 contingency fund to cover the budget shortfall until March 2006.

Police have launched a campaign to clamp down on pubs in Derby who serve under-age drinkers and offer irresponsible happy hours. Nottinghamshire chief constable Steve Green, spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said police would link the number of happy hours in premises with the number of violent or disruptive acts there and apply for their licences to be removed if this was judged to be a problem.

Assistant Chief Constable Mick Creedon said alcohol was partly to blame for the rise in violent crime, and an eight-week campaign has been launched to tackle the problem. Police will be working alongside Trading Standards officers and local pubs and retailers to prevent under-age drinking, excessive drunkenness or serving beyond licenced hours.

The city will be targeted on several Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights when drugs dogs will be out during the eight weeks, patrolling queues outside pubs and clubs. There will be a mobile police station in the Market Place and undercover and uniformed police video teams will be targeting known hotspots. A mobile CCTV van will also be in the city.