"Another problem is that it is considered funny or cool for people to drink a lot. I even heard girls saying before that if you wake up the next day in someone else's bed and can't remember the night before, it means you had a really good time".

This is the problem - is there nothing we can do to change the way people think?

   I believe there are far too many licensed premises in Reading town centre, hence the fierce competition to drive footfall into venues. The capacity of these venues far out numbers the volume of drinkers. In order to attract people to their venues licensees then resort to discounting drinks so their premises seem more attractive, in some parts of the town centre you’re constantly accosted by people with promotional flyers for venues. Licensees should be driving their businesses on the basis of quality entertainment, high standards and excellent customer service - not cheap drinks. I will also add that some Licensees are ordered to run these promotions by their Head Offices, which doesn’t help the situation. Licensees should still have the freedom to discount but there should be a minimum pricing structure in place which should be adhered to by all licensed premises and enforced by the police.

In order to understand why some people drink to excess we must understand the “customer journey” Some people start drinking at home at around 6pm or 7pm or even earlier, they get to the first bar between 8pm - 9pm and possibly move onto a club by 12am after visiting another bar or two. I believe that as some people in Reading tend to make their way home by 2.00am or 3am, people try to drink as much as they can before they have to leave the venue; some Reading venues are open until 6am! People will not normally be admitted to a club or a bar if they appear drunk - hence once they have been granted entry they drink to excess before 2am arrives. It is no coincidence that the vast majority of public disorder incidents occur after 12am, when you also take into account the current economic uncertainty regarding jobs, money & debt, people just want to go out & forget their troubles & have a good time!

The products are now designed to look & taste amazing, staff are trained to serve quickly & up sell the products, some bars & clubs sell multiple shots on a “paddle” so 1 person can carry up to 12 shots at a time or cocktails are served in 4 pint pitchers, some venues even sell spirits by the bottle!

People tend not to visit city & town centres due to the stigmatisation attached to them at night time. This is primarily caused by the anti social behavior of binge drinkers. This prevents other social groups entering into the city & town centres to take advantage of the entertainment & leisure facilities available because of the fear of becoming the victim and or witness of anti social behavior caused by the binge drinkers This in turn takes us back to where licensee's discount drinks in order to drive footfall due to falling admissions - its one viscous circle.

People who drink to excess and subsequently cause problems in Reading town centre know that if they do get arrested they'll just get a small fixed fine. In order to deter trouble they must be a more severe punishment system in place. The police need greater powers and more resources to deal with this problem. A long term strategy needs to be implemented and enforced where the Police & council work with licensed premises, not just threaten them with license revocation. Generally a police presence outside venues tends to deter trouble, but the police can't be outside every licensed venue between the hours of 12am - 6am, indeed in Reading town centre they all disappear at 2.50am! I also recall one occasion when I walked around the entire town centre visiting various clubs & bars with councilor Tony Paige & other members of the Pubwatch committee we didn’t see any Police Officers during a 2 hour period!

The National Licensees Certificate & The British Institute of Inn keeping exams are far too easy, anyone with an ounce of common sense can pass them and this leads to a very low level of licensee operating these high capacity venues. Some corporate operators are pushing through as many new licensees as possible; very often they are in-experienced and paid quite a low basic wage. In order to make additional money they are paid bonus's based on admissions and income - not profitability, the easiest way to increase income and drive footfall is by discounting. Some licensees have also been known to run their venues over capacity; (with the knowledge of their bosses) this practice is extremely dangerous, irresponsible & illegal and will also lead to violence & disorder when conditions get too cramped.

In addition to looking at bars, clubs & pubs we must also look at premises with "Off Licenses." All the major supermarket chains sell alcohol at discounted prices - This week I saw a drink deal in one supermarket of £6 for 20 bottles of beer, this is the equivalent of 30p a drink! Once party goers have vacated a venue after the alcohol has stopped being served they then go to either a take away or join a taxi queue. These types of business are known flashpoints for violence & disorder. Reading does now have Taxi Marshalls & they do a great job, but they’re not the Police & their job is made all the more difficult for this reason. Alcohol fuelled patrons trying to jump a queue at a taxi rank or take away, inevitably leading to trouble, particularly if they have an audience to play to. These people will cause problems if they can't get home quickly at the end of the night. The police need greater resources in order to disperse these people at the end of the night, there are potentially thousands of people on the streets between 2am - 3am and they've all had a lot to drink. On Friar Street alone 6 venues close between 2am – 3am with a combined capacity of around 4000! There just aren't enough taxis or buses available to cope with the demand at the end of the night, not to mention there is no Police presence!

This is only a brief insight into how & why binge drinking has occurred and its effect on society, there are many more points that need to be addressed and debated; hopefully my comments will lead to such a debate.

Les Richards, Reading

   having the misfortune (although I chose too), to live in the town centre most nights and every friday and saturday, the shouting and swearing go on til well after 3am. and guess what NO sign of any Police. oh "we haven't the resorces" or "busy with life and death calls", is the stock answer to any question as to why the Police have not got out in force at 2 to 3 am to nick the offenders.......of course its tosh, because it is total mismangement and the modern pc world that keeps Police off the streets!!! debating will get nowhere. what is needed is an army of Police with the backing of senior management and government,to robustly ENFORCE laws, which IS SADLY LACKING in this country

   I think that Binge Drinkers should be relentlessly hunted down,without mercy,by currently unemployed packs of foxhounds.Good for the countryside and good for the town!Betta still a policeman in every pub and cctv in every living room.After thousands of years an end to the scourge of drinking is in sight!And Good Riddance too - all that laughing and smiling and probably leftwing "social interaction" should end now!When I was a yoof we made do with eating coal and were just as happy.

More seriously - pcwatch - you sound like Stalin - lighten up and Superintendent Weems - yes you are a killjoy.

   Supermarkets should also limit alcohol to the alcohol aisles, instead of putting bottles of wine/beer on offer in the middle of food aisles for no real reason other than to try to persuade people to buy it.

I know someone who gave up drinking for their health, but still has moments where they see alcohol and want it. This means shopping would be fine if alcohol was kept in one aisle that could be avoided. However, when it's displayed everywhere it makes the temptation harder to resist.

If shops, supermarkets, bars, clubs etc took more responsibility when it came to people buying alcohol or being drunk in their establishments, and there was more punishment for being drunk & disorderly or drinking on the streets, it could go part of the way to helping the issue.

   Superintendent Jim Weems seems a very nice person for a police officer! But like so many of his position and ilk he should get around more.

Limit the number of outlets and restrict off licensees seeking licenses to a limited few per neighborhood.

Make pubs, clubs and bar management totally responsible for their bar staff selling alcohol to any customer whose behavior leads managers to perceive by their body language they are getting or have got to a stage where serious misconduct could break out. Bearing in mind that a licensee/manager is not allowed to serve drinks to those he/she has reason to believe to be over the limit anyway.

Any bar with a continuing serious disorder problem either inside or immediately outside their bar should be reported and officially warned by the police. When they get to three warnings they should automatically have their premises closed down and their licence revoked.

Enforce the no drinking ban on our streets. I have actually seen police officers ride past whist yobs continue to cause drunken disturbance whilst waving cans of Special Brew in the air.

Raise the limit for the purchase and consumption of alcoholic drinks to 21 again both in the shops and pubs.

Raise the limit to buy alcoholic drinks from shops and supermarkets to 25 years.(Many already have this policy)

Ban cheap price drinks promotions.

Door staff on all in town pubs and bars to stop anyone entering who is under the influence – and that is surely not too difficult for the new and better breed of professionally licensed “bouncer” (Sorry about the use of that awful word)

And most important of all is to get the police to take a much more active role in not only patrolling the town centre but the noisy and troublesome suburbs.

Introduce Zero Tolerance on all anti-social drunken behavior and the selling of booze to anyone under 25years old.

This is not a panacea of action but it might be a start in bringing binge drinkers under control.

Laws will not stop the rot but serious and well resourced enforcement – that is the only answer.

   Well said CMA. It's about responsible drinking. Biz KING: why should I be denied a glass of wine with my dinner, simply because some other people are idiots? If some people can't drink responsibly, then they should be penalised. THEM. Not me.

   There is only one answer to this debate. If you want less alcohol fuelled violence, deaths, injurys, sickness etc etc then simply we need to ban it.

Your in dream land if you expect humans to drink responsibly its never going to happen for the over whelming majority of us. There is more harm than benefit to society when it comes to booze so simply ban it. If you dont then dont expect things to get much better.

   I would like a harder stance by the Police as regards friday and saturday nights in Reading town centre. It really has become a no go zone for normal drinkers who can handle their drink. A few more fines for D & D wouldnt go amiss, and a hell of a lot more arrests.

Ta.

   One more point - in many countries where drink isn't so much of a problem, children are actually given small amounts of wine, or diluted wine, with dinner while they sit down and eat with parents.

Part of the problem here is parents don't teach responsible drinking, ie. small amounts with meals, to enjoy the taste and not the drunkenness that ensues.

   I used to drink, and I would drink a lot. I am a petite woman but was friends with a lot of big rugby guys, and wanted to "prove" myself by keeping up with their drinking.

I stopped drinking altogether 6 years ago as I didn't like not being in control of myself and had a few risky moments.

Part of the problem is people feel unable to let their hair down, dance and have fun without being drunk.

Another problem is that it is considered funny or cool for people to drink a lot. I even heard girls saying before that if you wake up the next day in someone else's bed and can't remember the night before, it means you had a really good time.

It's obscene and a dangerous way of thinking which needs to be stopped. People need to learn to go out, dance, socialise etc without being dead drunk.

   I don't think underage drinking is tackled hard enough in this country. It's too easily accessible, including parents helping their underage children get access and this surely proves that there's an age limit to drink alcohol for a reason. Saying that, there's a lot of adults that drink to excess for a whole host of reasons, it's sociably acceptable (when it doesn't affect or damage the public), it comes hand in hand with meeting with friends on a night out, then you've got alcoholics that are hooked and can't survive without it and need help and must just drink to escape and mask how empthy their lives are. Personally, I remember when I was in the "going out every week on the town" phase, it felt good after a few and then I drank more as you think the nice warm feeling will get even nicer, then it goes past that and you get bladdered and sick and it ruins the night.

   What I want to know is this; why is it considered so socially acceptable and in fact funny, for folk to drink to excess, to be dead drunk, puking all over the place, shouting obscenities.

That type of behaviour is frowned upon in other civilized countries (and even the uncivilized ones!!). One hardly ever sees this type of behaviour when one travels abroad – unless one has the misfortune to come into contact with other British travelers.