SURELY one of the first steps Bolton Council should be considering in their “unified attack on the consumption of alcohol abuse” would be the reduction of opening hours for pubs and clubs in the borough. What was wrong with shutting the doors at 11ppm?

How do those hardened drinkers get up for work each morning after staggering around the town centre all night? If they don’t have jobs to go to, how can they possibly afford to drink to excess in the first place?

I suppose, like you and me, councillors read the endless tales of spats, fights, sexual attacks and other drunken exploits in the early hours .

The council needs to strike at the heart of the problem, which is so obvious to most of us. If the venues close their doors at a reasonable time, the drinkers would have nowhere to go but home.

Dorothy Syddall Over Hulton