Met chief warns on drink culture

Sir John Stevens has warned against the move towards a 24-hour drinking culture in Britain.

The Met Police chief, who is due to retire next month, said it ignored the problem of excessive drinking and would place further strain on police resources.

His comments put him on a collision course with the Government over proposals to relax licensing laws.

He said: "I think there has been a deterioration in how people behave on the streets.

"You can see excessive drinking in extraordinary amounts on a Friday or Saturday night.

"That's one of the reasons-I think that assaults against the police have gone up.

"The move towards 24-hour drinking needs to be slowed down. The fact that large groups of people will be coming out at 3am or 4am will mean that we have to man up the streets to deliver a service to ensure these people behave."

He added: "The 24-hour drinking needs to be very, very carefully considered, specifically as far as our resources are concerned."