IT'S good to see a couple of councillors responding to Citizen Smith's challenge last week that our elected officials were too "spineless or witless" to do anything to stop the haemorrhaging of public monies from the town hall.

A bit near the knuckle perhaps but congratulations to Cllrs Woodruff and Westwell for standing up and being counted.

Let's see if any councillors are moved to action over this nugget which has come Citizen Smith's way.

Late night, alcohol-fuelled violence in the city centre is causing increasing concern. The costs in terms of spilled blood and trauma, crowded accident and emergency wards, police time and resources, legal costs, court costs and, if someone is found guilty, the £24,000 a year it costs to detain lager louts at her majesty's pleasure, are huge.

A drunken "What ya looking at?" and a flurry of flying fists probably costs the taxpayer well over £100,000, which is nothing compared to the human costs. Victim too scared to go out, daddy in prison, mother struggling to cope.

But what can we do about it?

A £60,000 cash award has recently been secured to put yet more CCTV cameras in more parts of town (even though it's hardly had the deterrent effect it's supposed to have)

More police resources are being targeted in the city centre at weekends to try and stop trouble before it starts.

All very good (and very expensive) but surely we're missing something - are we not just sticking plasters on the symptoms? Perhaps this nugget which came Smithy's way offers a clearer perspective on the problem.

Last week a friend went into a local pub and was delighted to discover it was just £1 for a pint of lager. He bought a round of drinks and nearly fell to the floor when the barman informed him that, if he won the flick of a coin, he could have the round again for free!

He won the toss and, for just three pounds, scooped six pints from the bar. The novelty of this amazing promotion led him to try his luck again and an hour later what started as a quick pint after work had turned into a monster drinking session.

It wasn't long before the mild-mannered pacifist was arm wrestling and looking for someone small to pick on. The next day his recollection of events were explained with those immortal words - spoken week in, week out in the crown court dock - "I was drunk. I can't really remember what happened."

It is a condition of licensing laws that premises sell alcohol responsibly.

This offer was open to anyone who looked over 18 (as many 16 year olds do these days) and, on top of bizarre promotions like these, breweries these days sell alcopops, alcohol slush puppies and vodka shots with a caffeine-based energy drink designed to go straight to your head.

At times breweries make your seedy local drug pusher look like a rank amateur when it comes to plying their wares to a younger and younger market.

Citizen Smith loves a pint, pubs are one of Britain's best inventions, but if we are going to seriously debate late night, alcohol-fuelled violence on our streets, surely someone should take a closer look at what some of the breweries are up to.

Or are these big businesses, who donate so generously to political parties, above the law?

Tourism figures discussed this week reveal that last year Morecambe attracted 2.5 million day visitors who spent £138 million in the resort - just over two and a half million a week. No, this is not a Two Ronnies joke, though I can hear more than a few of you laughing in your Vimto flavoured brandy!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.