Drinkers cause some late night trouble in Darlington but the problem is far worse in many other places. Gangs which troop from pub to pub here on Fridays and Saturdays often look and sound fearsome, with the women as bad as the men, but at least there is not as much violence as seen in some spots.
Perhaps our drinkers are more responsible then elsewhere, or a notable police presence may be the main reason for the relative peace. The downside is that the officers sitting in vehicles around the town centre are costing us all a lot of money. They could be better employed patrolling streets all over the town instead of keeping a watch for rowdy drunks.
But many ratepayers will be pleased about the way police have been dealing with younger drinkers, the under-age lot who tend to sit in parks or woods swigging alcohol from bottles. Officers have broken up several of those open air parties, seized scores of bottles and rounded up the guzzlers. The hope is that they will stay on the wagon rather than risk being pulled in again, and that this initial brush with the law will cause some of them to refrain from joining the weekend rowdies later.