VIOLENT crimes involving glasses and bottles are being targeted by police in Blackpool in a £30,000 initiative which was launched yesterday (Wednesday).

Bottle bins designed to cut glass-related incidents began rolling out in the crackdown called Operation Cutting Edge.

Holes in the bins are designed to be just big enough for a bottle or glass to go through and, once deposited, bottles cannot be retrieved -- putting potential deadly weapons out of the reach of would-be thugs.

From April last year until the present, police in Blackpool reported more than 100 violent night-time incidents involving glasses and bottles, and it is this figure that the initiative aims to tackle.

One police spokesman said: "This is not an excessive number over the year but when you look at the severity of the injuries it is only then that you see the real horror.

"Not only are there physical injuries but also emotional ones as well. Many victims suffer from post traumatic stress disorder which has long lasting effects and each injury of this type costs on average £19,000 to deal with and treat."

The Cutting Edge campaign will also incorporate posters and leaflets, T-shirts for bar staff, advertising on buses, beer mats and restaurant menu cards. The cost has been met by several parties, including Lancashire Constabulary, Blackpool Borough Council, Blackpool's Licensees' Forum, The Portman Group and several town centre businesses.

Cutting Edge, also supported by Blackpool's Community Safety Partnership and the Safer Streets in Lancashire initiative, is based on the similar Crystal Clear campaign piloted in Merseyside.

According to police the number of glass-related violent crime halved following the campaign.

Chief Inspector Bill McMahon, who is leading the initiative for the Community Safety Partnership, blamed Blackpool's "stag and hen party culture" for its above average number of glass-related incidents.

He said: "The main objective of the Cutting Edge initiative is to raise awareness of the increase in assaults that involve glasses and bottles in the town centre."

And he said that Crystal Clear had already shown that "educating and changing the culture of the people drinking in the town centre" worked in cutting glass-related violence.

"By adopting the principles so successful in Liverpool, the partnership is hoping to achieve similar levels of success in reducing incidents," he said.

Joint chairman of the Community Safety Partnership, Chief Superintendent Mike Cunningham, said: "We cannot gauge precisely just how effective this initiative will be but if we can reduce two such incidents then it will have been worthwhile and cost effective. The impact on victims of this sort of crime in emotional terms cannot be measured and there will be enormous financial savings to the taxpayer if we can eliminate these potential weapons."