Doctors called yesterday for the nationwide adoption of bylaws banning people from drinking in the streets, as new statistics highlighted the damage to health caused by alcohol.

Many local authorities have already brought in bylaws to prevent drinking on town-centre streets, and the British Medical Association wants to see them used much more widely to combat what it calls “an extremely worrying rise in alcohol-related morbidity”.

As the association debated the issue at its conference in Torquay yesterday, new data from the Department of Health showed that more than 5,000 under-16s were admitted to hospital as a result of drinking in 2005-06 – a rise of a third on the figures for ten years ago.

Over the same period, alcohol-related hospital admissions for all age groups have almost doubled, from 89,280 in 1995-96 to 187,640 in 2005-06.

The call for a ban on street drinking was debated hotly and only approved narrowly, by a vote of 121 to 106, as some speakers claimed it would bring an end to “café culture” and pubgoers spilling harmlessly on to the streets on a Friday night.

But the proposer, Ian Thompson, a GP from Glasgow, said that the laws could be drafted to avoid this. And picnics would not have to be alcohol-free, because bans would cover only “public streets”.

“Many local authorities have already introduced local laws preventing the consumption of alcohol in public streets in town centres,” he said. “I am sure you will agree that widening this generally acceptable step will help to reduce the problem of alcohol-related violence, making walking through town centres on a Saturday night slightly less intimidating.

“It might prevent at least some of the alcohol-related injuries, assaults and deaths.”

In a second debate yesterday the BMA reiterated its view that the drink-driving limit should be reduced from 80mg per 100ml of blood to 50mg, and came within a whisker of recommending an even lower limit – 20mg.

This was rejected by a narrow majority of 100 to 92. The new drinking data, released by the Information Centre for health and social care, showed that alcohol is 65 per cent more affordable than it was in 1980 and household spending on alcohol has increased steadily since 1980.

In 2005 73 per cent of men and 58 per cent of women said they drank an alcoholic drink on at least one day of the week. A total of 13 per cent of men and 8 per cent of women said that they had drunk alcohol every day in the previous week.

Professor Denise Lievesley, the centre’s chief executive, said: “These figures show some worrying trends about the effects on society of consuming excessive amounts of alcohol.

“We hope government and other policymakers will use these figures to inform the development of policies to help reduce the harm that excessive alcohol consumption can cause.”

— Thousands of teeenage schoolchildren are binge drinking at least once a week and more than half admit that they become violent when drunk, a survey of 12,000 young people aged 14-17 in the North West has found. One in 14 young people also admitted using fake identity cards to lie about age; 22 per cent said they had regretted having sex while drunk; and 15 per cent said that they had been a passenger in a car with a driver who had been drinking. The figures were produced by the Trading Standards Institute.

Off limits

Spain is planning to ban drinking in public

Turkey proposed a ban two years ago on alcohol in city centres

America laws vary from state to state. In Louisiana bars and restaurants are banned from displaying any alcohol brand name that can be seen from outside

Saudi Arabia Only expatriates in designated compounds can drink alcohol

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