Richmond Borough In Top Three in Binge Drinking League

11.08.08am GMT Fri 1st Sep 2006

Vincent Cable MP for Twickenham

Research has shown that Richmond is close to the top of London's league table for the number of adults who engage in binge drinking: 18.4% of over 16s, just behind Wandsworth (21.1%) and Hammersmith and Fulham (20.1%), but twice the level of Newham, Brent, Harrow, and Tower Hamlets. The London average is 15.4%. The big drinking boroughs also score highly in drink-related conditions like liver disease.

[Source of data, North West Public Health Observatory in Liverpool, contact Karen Tocque, as reported in the Evening Standard 29th August p17]

Vincent Cable MP said: "These figures are no great surprise, and I doubt that they surprise the police, who are very concerned with the impact of binge drinking in our town centres. But it is seriously worrying that 1 in 5 of our borough's adult population, and many more among young adults, are going out at least once a week intending to drink 8 or more units of alcohol, with all that that means in terms of damage to health and public drunkenness"