Nobody who visits Brighton city centre when the pubs and clubs empty on a Saturday night can be in much doubt about the effects of drink.

Policing this untidy spectacle makes the city by the sea more like Dodge City - not to mention the small rivers of miscellaneous fluids on almost every pavement.

The fact 80 per cent of people in casualty on Friday and Saturday nights are there with injuries brought about by drinking should come as no surprise.

The NHS spends £4 million a year in Brighton and Hove paying for this drink-fuelled casualty list.

Nor should we be surprised that two-thirds of domestic assaults are drink related or that half of all child-protection cases also involve drink somewhere along the line.

Police report an increase in drink-related crime - about 2,000 individual incidents last year.

The country is crying out for a national drink strategy and it is a public health scandal of epic proportions that one is not in place.

Brighton and Hove is in something of a cleft stick here. The effects of drink are there to see but the city is an entertainment centre and some 10,000 jobs depend on restaurants, pubs and clubs.

A local alcohol strategy to combat this menace is a step in the right direction and should be welcomed.