BINGE-DRINKING and alcohol abuse is killing hundreds of Swindonians every year and landing thousands more in court and hospital, according to a public health watchdog.

The massive cost of binge-drinking, chronic liver disease, drink-fuelled sexual assaults and injuries are all catalogued in the North West Public Health Observatory report that says 21 per cent of the town's adults are binge-drinkers.

Excess drinking is taking an average nine months off the life expectancy of Swindon men and 4.4 months of life from women.

Dangerous drinking is killing 133 men and 100 women in the town every year.

Hospital emergency departments were filled with more than 1,300 people, draining emergency resources after drunken trips, falls and other injuries.

According to the report alcohol directly caused 389 admissions to Swindon's hospitals in 2004-5.

Last year, drink-fuelled rage ended with 1,032 assaults and 28 sexual assaults from a total 1,490 crimes.

Swindon and Wiltshire Alcohol and Drug Service director Bill Carlton said that the most disturbing part of the report was there is worse to come.

"With 233 deaths a year, I believe that's the tip of the iceberg," said Mr Carlton.

He said that the numbers of young people binge-drinking now had not yet begun to appear in the statistics on deaths and life expectancy.

Unless the national binge-drinking culture is changed, he said the country faces a massive medical and social treatment bill in years to come.

"It's a timebomb waiting to happen," he said.

"I hope it will frighten people into looking at how they are drinking."

He said that there needed to be more information made available to drinkers about the damage they could do to themselves.

"The breweries and drinks industry need to get more responsibly information out," said Mr Carlton.

"The social effects are colossal. The anti-social behaviour affects all parts of society." Cabinet member for health David Renard said the figures were "shocking".

"It's taking a serious toll in both human terms and financial terms," said Coun Renard (Con, Haydon Wick).

"When it gets to this extreme level, it's not acceptable.

"It does seem to have reached almost epidemic proportions. We need education at all levels."

Coun Renard said that the council would use all its powers to stamp out anti-social behaviour and the binge-drinking that creates it, including shutting down bars it says are not behaving responsibly.

The council was the first local authority in the country to use new licensing powers to close a bar when it stripped nightclub mbargo of its licence last week.

The bar operators still have the chance to appeal the decision.

Central sector inspector Ian Bamber said the report backed up what police already know - binge-drinking is damaging revellers and those around them.

Insp Bamber said Fleet Street on Friday and Saturday nights were the most obvious binge-drinking spots, something the police were trying to tackle with their Operation XS crackdown.

But he said that drinkers had to take responsibility for their own behaviour and that a "culture change" was needed.

North West Public Health Observatory's Professor Mark Bellis said the results "graphically illustrate the growing costs of cheap alcohol, a night-time economy almost exclusively packed with bars and clubs, and a failure to deliver a credible drinking message to both youths and adults".

Change of culture is needed, say police

SWINDON is pretty much middle of the pack for its binge-drinking problem but you wouldn't know it to see Fleet Street on a Friday or Saturday night.

The police have vowed to crackdown on excess alcohol consumption.

Operation XS, or OP XS for short, was launched in June to tackle Swindon and Wiltshire's drinking problem in all its forms.

From drink-driving, to vandalism and violence, Swindon central sector inspector Ian Bamber said that his officers see it every weekend.

He said that the problem of binge-drinking had become more obvious in the past five or six years.

Insp Bamber said the police were doing what they could but there needs to be a culture change.

"We can only do so much," Insp Bamber said.

"This is a national problem.

"Binge-drinking as a description of how people have and how they view alcohol wouldn't have been around much more than five years ago.

"Binge-drinkers from our perspective are drinkers who are drinking until they drop.

"People are coming in who have drunk themselves stupid.

"There's a need to change that culture."

Alcohol could also fuel domestic violence as well as public disorder and road accidents, Insp Bamber said.

Insp Bamber said the police were not against people having a good time, they want them to stay safe.

"It's like they say on a lot of alcohol bottles, drink by all means, but drink responsibly."

Insp Bamber added that the police were working with landlords to turn off the taps for revellers who are already drunk.

OP XS is a county-wide campaign to reduce the number of deaths, injuries and arrests caused by excess drinking.

The seven-month operation will involve the force's 1,250 police officers, backed up by hundreds of PCSOs, special constables and police staff, patrolling the streets and taking a zero tolerance approach to anyone who commits crime as a result of excessive drinking.

Assistant Chief Constable Peter Vaughan said: "The message is about moderation, about the problems that arise from excess and how in some cases those problems prove fatal."

How our town compares

Percentage of the adult population defined as binge-drinkers:

Swindon: 21.1 per cent; England: 18.2 per cent; South west: 15.8 per cent; Slough: 18.7 per cent; Reading: 17 per cent; Oxford: 16.9 per cent; Bristol: 13.2 per cent.

Months of life lost by men from dangerous drinking:

Swindon: 9.1 months; England: 9.5 months; South west: 8.36 months; Slough: 10.72 months; Reading: 11.42 months; Oxford: 9.84 months; Bristol: 11.72 months.

Months of life lost by women from dangerous drinking:

Swindon: 4.4 months; England: 5.14 months; South west: 4.3 months; Slough: 4.02 months; Reading: 5.71 months; Oxford: 3.67 months; Bristol: 4.75 months.

Crimes blamed on drinking:

Swindon: 1,490; England: 523,666; South west: 42,883; Slough: 1,759; Reading: 2,405; Oxford: 1,810; Bristol: 7,569.

  • The survey defines binge drinking for men as consuming eight or more units of alcohol on the heaviest drinking day in the previous week. For women, it was six or more units of alcohol.