EXTENDED licensing hours can only lead to more trouble and misery.

Most people who work or have worked, myself included, with problem drinkers must be worried and see it as a retrograde step.

There must be a better way of stopping the ridiculous spectacle of alcoholic drinks lining bar tops because time has been called.

I do understand the present hours irritate tourists.

But to see reasonable human beings turn into giddy or nasty, semi-conscious or unconscious wrecks, in direct relation to their consumption of alcohol, is so sad.

Ordinary families face and fear this every day and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to spot it happening.

I once saw a lovely red-haired Irish woman clear a tap-room by knocking drinks to the floor with one effective flourish of an arm - just like a Tennessee Williams character. Her family had been getting into a bonny state and she was exasperated.

I admit it was totally the wrong way to tackle things, but boy, did she have style.

Margaret Lawson,

Aldborough House,

The Groves, York.

Updated: 11:38 Saturday, January 08, 2005