Dear Journal.

Your newspaper has long supported the development of the `party city' and cultural renaissance of Newcastle and Gateshead.

Today, Friday 27th May 2005, you have chosen to greet with enthusiasm the latest initiative by Northumbria Police to tackle the alleged `binge drinking culture' said to ruin the city for various groups in society.

In support of the Chief Constable's arguments you publish some statistics; presumably intended to support and confirm the `escalating disorder' mania which dominated the press in the early weeks of this year, in connection with the alleged dire consequences which were to follow from the introduction of "24-hour drinking".

I note from these statistics that offences of drunkenness in Newcastle are static and the differences in some of the other major centres of late night activity are within the margins of statistical variance as to be negligible. What were the comparable figures 10 and 20 years ago? In Newcastle, arrests for drunkenness averaged 54 per week in 2004/05. Now we are told (page 4) that `Of 34 people arrested in the city in the last two weeks, 25 have been drunk and disorderly' ( where is this escalating problem?

The figures do not distinguish between times of arrest and on which days of the week they occurred. I would stake a reasonable wager that the vast majority of these detentions for disorderly behaviour were made in the period from 23.30 to 04.00 and over the weekend ( a time when most of the disconcerted groups will not be walking the streets of Newcastle (accompanied by young children).

While we do not condone loutish behaviour or violence directed indiscriminately at others ( we are often on the receiving end of this ( the current trend to try to reduce every problem to resolution by some formulaic slogan does not help. Does the effective control of what the Chief Constable admits is a tiny minority justify a campaign whose slogan is likely, on garbled repetition, to do serious damage to a major segment of the local economy.

It is to be hoped the Chief Constable has not had a "Gerald Ratner" moment. Unfortunately, whatever the consequences of his latest campaign, he ( like the Vicar of Bray ( will move on, and seek to tackle some new "problem" which has excited the Prime Minister; perhaps leaving many thousands of people to face the consequences of a vibrant and prosperous city economy damaged for the benefit of the Government's latest top 10 problem-solving exercise.

ALAN FIDLER,

Secretary, North Tyneside Taxi Organisation,

Alma Place, North Shields.