Nearly five years ago, Tessa Jowell, then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, wrote an article for the Telegraph & Argus explaining why the Labour Government was changing the licensing laws.

Most pubs had to shut at 11pm, which was unfair on friends having a night out and people coming off a late shift. The restriction had stayed the same since 1915.

“Licensing hours were actually brought in to stop those making armaments for the First World War turning up the worse for wear the next day,” she wrote.

“Why should England and Wales be out of step with almost all the rest of Europe – and Scotland and Ireland as well?”

That seemed a reasonable argument at the time. However, the relaxed, cafe-culture, open-all-hours idea, not treating adults as children, resulted in increased cases of children in court for drink-related anti-social behaviour and up to 1,400 drink-related admissions to the Accident and Emergency departments of Bradford Royal Infirmary and Airedale Hospital.

Binge drinking in town and city centres, especially among young people, has been a regular feature on television and in newspapers over the past five years.

The Home Office says last year more than a million alcohol-related violent crimes occurred, with a fifth of incidents taking place in or around a pub or club, mostly at night or early in the morning.

Home Secretary Teresa May proposes to re-examine the licensing laws and take steps to curb alcohol-related crimes. She wants stiffer sentences for selling alcohol to under-18s, and local communities to have a greater say in the location of bars in areas where licensed premises already exist. She said: “The benefits promised by the 24-hour drinking cafe culture have failed to materialise, and in its place we have seen an increase in the number of alcohol-related incidents and drink-fuelled crime and disorder.”

Apart from social problems associated with binge-drinking, drinking itself is now a health issue. Obesity and heart and liver problems are attributed to excessive drinking. Sign on at any medical centre and you will be asked if you drink, how much and how often.

Earlier this year, Dr Paul Southern, a Bradford liver specialist, told the T&A: “When I started training nearly 20 years ago, it was 40 to 50-year-old men in hospital with liver disease. Now we are seeing young women – I have patients in their mid-20s who are unlikely to survive a year. My youngest who died was 25.”

Is the ‘live now, pay later’ bravado, prevalent in Britain since the late 1980s, part of the problem?

“Something has happened, hasn’t it?” he added. “People don’t think of the consequences of what they do, or think that health or social services will pick up the pieces for them.

“I worry about how we’re going to cope with people drinking to excess whose medical problems will come through in their late-30s and 40s. I think the problem will peak in the next five to ten years.

“I agree with Teresa May’s consultative document. We have got to stop this culture now by re-empowering communities and fining retailers very large sums to stop them selling alcohol to the under-age.”

The problem isn’t simply about the existence of pubs. Over the past 13 years, at least 120 pubs have closed in the Bradford district, Calderdale and Kirklees. The figure for the whole of England in that period is in excess of 3,500.

The smoking in public ban has done for some of them. Bill Arnold, former Bradford Camra (Campaign for Real Ale) chairman and for six years licensee of The Junction pub in Baildon, thinks the real problem is the availability of cheap alcohol from supermarkets.

He said: “Why should you be able to buy a can of beer in a supermarket for 50p? You can drink at home and then go out later and stay out until five or six in the morning. Young people think that’s normal; they get used to going out three-quarters drunk.

“In January, VAT goes up to 20 per cent. That will mean licensees paying more for their beer. The price of a pint will go up. I think you’re going to see the £4 pint. If supermarkets go on selling low-cost beer more pubs will shut.”

Alcoholism is likely to remain a problem if more people drink at home. However, if Teresa May persuades Parliament to drastically reduce opening hours, going out late to pubs and clubs to carry on drinking might be curbed.

Over-18s with drink problems can get help by ringing the Bradford-based Piccadilly Project on (01274) 735775.