For six years I have been a taxi driver in Saffron Walden, a market town in Essex. On Friday and Saturday nights we have to pick up passengers from pubs between about 11.00 and 11.30. This is not very good, as some people have downed their last few pints in a very short time, and do not really want to go home immediately. When we have extended licencing hours over weekends/Bank Holidays/New Year, this has not been a problem, as people drink when they wish and go home when they want. Everyone is more relaxed, and we do not have the problem of everyone trying to take someone else's cab. We should give landlords the freedom to choose their own hours. No pub/bar will stay open for 24 hours, but they will work out the best times for them and, as in Europe, there will always be somewhere in each town/village where one can get a drink whenever. Stuart Walker, Great Dunmow, Essex

Thirty years ago, 24-hour licensing might have been a good idea. As it is, it's too late to change the drinking culture of this country. People drink for the purpose of getting drunk not to be social - something which is clear from the behaviour of Brits abroad. Also, does the Government really think that people will stop and go home at staggered times? All it means is that everyone will be queueing for few night buses and taxis there are later than they currently do. Name and address withheld

We have a moral obligation not to encourage behaviour which the majority find unacceptable, which is unfortunately the case with drinking. It is well documented - see how Brits behave in Ibiza and how football supporters behave abroad. That one sniff of the barmaids apron and previously well spoken and respectable Brits turn in to rioting sex and violence-obsessed louts. Do we really want to encourage that? Ceri Jones, Nottingham

It's not just noisy pubs and clubs - who wants to wait at bus stops with drunks, travel on public transport with drunks, walk home past drunks and if you live with a person who drinks, know there will always be an outlet open to feed the addiction? Name and address withheld

There is an inherent contradiction in the legislation. It is supposed to lead to staggered closing times. However,if all the pubs ask for the same times, staggered hours can only be achieved if licensing authorities consciously determine one pub's closing times in accordance with those of other nearby pubs. My understanding however is that the legislation requires authorities to determine a pub's hours solely on the basis of evidence relating to that pub's application and any objections received to it. Being a British statute, the purpose (staggered hours) is not presumably stated in the Act and regard may only be had to Ministers' comments to this effect in Hansard in very limited circumstances. Since most of the pubs going in for the longer hours will be those belonging to the large chains which are of course, in direct competition with each other to make the most money, they will all ask for the same hours and there will not be much the authorites can therefore do about it. Mark Schuck, London

At the moment it's all a matter of guesswork. Nobody knows what the effect will be until the new law comes in. Why doesn't the government simply start with a trial in a few towns and cities before committing itself to national legislation? At least it's good to see few people are advocating a general increase in alcohol duty as a solution. As a very moderate wine drinker nowadays, I always bear in mind Dr Stuttaford's encouraging advice that in moderation it's good for us. But, on a fixed income, I don't regard £3 a bottle for even the most basic supermarket plonk as cheap. Barry Goodchild, Wallington

Binge drinking is part of British/English culture. Consistory court records from the early modern period are littered with references to people being drunk and disorderly, even to the extent of "spewing" in church. The hope that a new licensing regime will instigate a more measured, continental style of drinking are, I believe, doomed to failure. Peter Abraham, Kingston upon Hull

When all-day licensing was to be introduced there were claims that people would be lying drunk on the streets in the afternoons; it never happened. As a licencee, I applied to go till midnight Sunday-Thursday, and 1am Friday-Saturday. The police told me if I wanted to go to 1am I would need to employ door staff, which I can't afford, so I asked what time could I go to, and was told midnight. I had no intention of staying open that late; the idea was to allow people to drift off slowly, minimising street noise and taxi rank queues. All the police have done is to move the problem one hour later. In Portsmouth there are fewer than 12 officers on duty after 2am. The idea behind relaxing the laws is the right one, but some of the authorities don't seem to have grasped the concept, or the benefits. If pubs and clubs pay for extra policing, what will the extra duty revenue and VAT be spent on? For every £3 spent on a pint after 11pm, that's 45p in VAT and an average of 50p duty. Now if I have 50 people buying two pints a night after 11pm seven days a week, that's about £36,000 per year in duty and VAT. That should be enough to finance a policeman on my door, and there are about 700 licenced premises in Portsmouth - how many police does £25 million buy? John Bridge, Portsmouth

We live in town where the High Street is lined with houses and flats. It is very much a residential street. Yet the pub closest to where we live, has been granted an extended licence despite the comment from the police that “There is significant criminality within the vicinity of these premises which peaks on Friday nights…....anti-social behaviour mirrors this”, and strong objections from local residents. Fom November the pub will remain open until 1am Monday to Wednesday, 1.30am Thursday to Saturday and 12.30 am on a Sunday. Patrons always take three quarters of an hour to drift away from the pub. There will therefore be disturbance well into the early hours every day. When we expected to sleep? Christine Lea, Berkhamsted

Oh to be patronised like this. The gentlemen's clubs of St James' might well be filled with gin-soaked politicos and jurists till the early hours but we the masses are not Continental enough to be afforded the same privilege. I applaud these new laws. The harm that has been caused by restricting opening hours will take years to undo. Vertical binge-drinking has been a direct affect of these restraints, our insipidly dull chain pubs another. The truth is that you always have been able to drink late, but only after being funnelled into a cuboid, windowless nightclub where the drinks come in plastic glasses, your feet stick to the floor and the music so loud as to make proper conversation impossible. Certainly licensed premises must start to take responsibility for their customer's behaviour, but the relaxation of these laws will start to repair some of the damage caused from years of state interference in our bedtimes. Anthony Parsons, Poole, Dorset

The new Licensing Act is actually not a "relaxation of licensing laws" - in fact it creates one of the most heavily regulated licensing systems in the world. The media has picked up on one aspect of the new Act - namely that "permitted hours" set by Parliament are being replaced by a set of hours determined locally upon application to the local council, with lots of opportunity for local businesses, residents and police to object. There are also ongoing opportunities for police and residents to call for a Premises Licence to be reviewed if a pub or bar isn't run responsibly. I think these powers will be used extensively and that we will see pubs closing if they aren't run responsibly. Emotional predictions that civilisation as we know it will collapse once the new laws come into effect miss the point that the current problem is largely a product of the licensing system that we currently have. I believe the new system will work better. Paul Chase, CHAIR, Confederation of Professional Licensees, Birkenhead

This debate has tended to centre upon light-night opening hours, but not upon some of the equally nonsensical daytime controls. For instance, why do pubs stop serving at 14.30 on Sunday afternoons and why is it acceptable to be able to buy wines and spirits at 12.01 on a Sunday from the supermarket, but not at 11.59? For that matter, the law deems it acceptable to buy alcohol at 0800 when the supermarket opens on a Saturday morning, presumably allowing a state of blessed oblivion to have set in long before the pubs close at 23.00. No doubt some will drink to excess, and of that number some will engage in antisocial behaviour, but they will do so whatever licensing hours are prescribed by the Home Office. On that basis, one has to question why we bother to control opening hours at all. The hours of opening should be dictated by the individual licence holder, operator or retailer. Michael Fearn, St Albans, Herts