IT could have been a touching scene of innocence. Five girls, arms linked, meandering happily along the Scarborough seafront towards me last week as waves lapped gently on the shore.

Weaving past busy fish-and-chip stalls and the eye-catching flashes and bleeps and coin-rattles from noisy amusement arcades, the friends could have been grinning because they had finally been released from the shackles of school and were spending part of their six-week summer holiday at the

seaside.

But it was most likely the girls, aged between 14 and 16, were so bright-eyed and jolly because they had just lurched from a local boozer.

Further along the seafront, two groups of boozed-fuelled mid-20s blokes argued, traded venomous insults. A brawl looked inevitable. One drunken fellow had blood dripping from his nose - an injury sustained trying to hurdle a fence. Colin Jackson he was not.

Another man bellowed, inexplicably, at a dustbin. This was a bleak snapshot of Scarborough, once a royal resort, at 11.30pm - "kicking out time" for scores of heaving bars and pubs.

But the problem is not confined to North Yorkshire.

Figures newly released by the Home Office revealed the alarming prevalence of alcohol-related disorder in 77 areas of Britain, including North Yorkshire Police's eastern division.

Halfway through the Government's eight-week blitz on drunken yobs and

under-age boozing, police across Britain have already issued more than 1,900 on-the-spot fines for rowdy behaviour. The drive targeted pubs and bars in sting operations and found 51per cent sold alcohol to under-18s. About 29 per cent of shops sold beer and alcopops to underage drinkers.

Police also confiscated alcohol from more than 4,000 adults and children. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) branded the results of the crackdown "disturbing". And Home Secretary David Blunkett admitted more needed to be done to tackle alcohol-related violence and disorder.

He said: "We are no longer prepared to tolerate our towns and city centres becoming no-go areas on Friday and Saturday nights." The crackdown is part of an attempt by Blunkett to kick-start a "culture change" in Britain's approach to binge drinking.

Alcohol is the cause of 70 per cent of weekend night admissions to casualty and costs Britain about £20 billion a year through crime, injuries and lost productivity at work, according to official statistics.

But critics have argued the Government's crackdown is flawed in one key respect. Ministers are planning to introduce 24-hour drinking next summer. As part of a concerted bid to introduce Continental-style "cafe culture" to England, councils will be allowed to permit pubs, bars and nightclubs to stay open round-the-clock.

Instead of thousands of drinkers necking as much alcohol as possible and spilling on to the streets at 11pm and 2am - a combination ripe for violence, say ministers - they will be allowed to linger over their drinks.

This will avoid the need for the notorious "swill" - where revellers fire down as much booze as possible before closing time.

Staggering closing times, goes the thinking, will lead to fewer staggering drunks. The idea, in principle, is sound.

Citizens of Paris, Milan, Barcelona et al do not spend Saturday and Sunday mornings clearing their pavements of blood, vomit and litter from the previous evening's orgy of drinking.

But ACPO insist the plan cannot work. They are convinced longer drinking hours will not lead to more responsible drinking - just more drinking. The problem, according to Chief Constable Steve Green, who is spearheading ACPO's part of the binge drinking crackdown, is British culture. In Europe, children are taught to enjoy a small amount of alcohol with their meals.

Consequently, they learn not to abuse it. An entire evening out with friends can be spent sipping a single glass of beer or wine.

In Britain, there is a section of society - usually young and male, but increasingly women (the "ladettes") - whose driving ambition on a weekend is to get smashed out of their heads. It will take more than eight weeks to shift their perception. Until it is, critics are justified in arguing that the Government's policy on alcohol is as muddled as the minds of the drunken hoodlums they are trying control.

Updated: 10:08 Friday, August 06, 2004