A JUDGE, MPs and health workers today called for action to curb East Lancashire's spiralling drink problem -- as it was revealed to be one of the worst in the country.

The move came as it was revealed that more than 10,000 men and 8,000 women regularly drink way over twice the recommended alcohol limit.

And medical experts called on the government to do more to help tackle the problem and the violence it prompts.

Figures also show 40 per cent of visits to A & E in Blackburn and Burnley -- between 10 and 12,000 a year -- are alcohol related, compared with 12 to 20 per cent nationally.

The area's top judge, Raymond Bennett spoke out after the latest in a long line of court cases involving alcohol-fuelled violence.

Judge Bennett, who said the courts hardly saw any defendants who had been in fights when they were sober, said:" I do wish the public generally would think about drinking less and perhaps we would see less violence."

His comments come as alcohol abuse in East Lancashire has risen to one of the highest levels in Britain -- with latest figures showing eight per cent of men and four per cent of women regularly drinking more than twice the recommended alcohol limit.

The national average is only six per cent for men and two per cent for women.

Staff working with alcohol abusers in East Lancashire say the high levels of alcohol abuse in the area are worrying and more needs to be done by the Government.

John Payne, from East Lancashire Health Authority's Alcohol Service, which covers Blackburn, Darwen, Accrington and the Ribble Valley, says the Government needs to commission more research and put more work into tackling rising alcohol abuse. And he appealed for more money to be put into dealing with the problems in East Lancashire.

Mr Payne said: "Compared with the national average, the North West is one of the highest regions in the country. Within the North West, East Lancashire has one of the highest levels."

He added: "We are going up quite consistently, but it is very much under-reported. There are massive, massive gaps in research in alcohol issues nationally, but more particularly locally."

He said he was still awaiting the Government's Alcohol Strategy, which was due to be released in 1998 in a bid to deal with the problem.

"Eighty seven per cent of the adult population drink, with the Government making £32.5 billion in tax revenue. Yet it spends just £29million on alcohol treatment and rehabilitation and just £1million on health promotion. It is not enough," he said.

Nigel Pearson, from the Alcohol Information Centre, a charity covering Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, said: "This is a very, very busy service and there is no doubt this is a hard drinking area and always has been. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that we are well above the national average. Alcohol problems tend to be prevalent in areas of high social deprivation, and this area has all of that. The loss of traditional industry, causing unemployment, is one obvious reason."

He added that number of young people with alcohol problems was also growing.

Figures from the Alcohol Service for East Lancashire show eight per cent of men in the area drink more than 51 units of alcohol each week, compared with the recommended limit of 21, while four per cent of women drink more than 30 units, against the recommended level of 14.

Lancashire probation service staff are putting together a new offender assessment system, which will pinpoint which offenders should be put on rehabilitation programmes for alcohol related offences.

A spokesman said: "The probation service recognises the links between alcohol and crime. We do deliver a probation programme in Lancashire which deals with alcohol and substance misuse, and we do refer offenders to other agencies. The new assessment system will look at factors which contribute to why a person is committing a crime."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "This is a matter for sensible advice and self restraint but the government cannot tell people what to do and become a Nanny State."

A spokesman for the Home Office said some measures to tackle alcohol abuse, including drinking in public places, public drunkeness and under age drunkeness had been brought in under varied legislation.