VIOLENT crime in our town centres is at its worst in the three or four hours after the pubs and clubs close on a Friday or Saturday night.

Bar room brawls, street fights and assaults and woundings like glassings that can scar for life went up by more than 50% in the three years up to last year in Blackburn alone.

Crimes involving violent behaviour - which includes robberies, for example - have gone up 17% in the same 1998-2001 period.

Clearly the reason there is more trouble on Friday and Saturday nights is because of the number of people in their teens and twenties literally staggering, fuelled by alcohol, from premises where throbbing, almost frantic music is being played at high volume.

The recently introduced ban on street drinking in the town centre was a welcome first step because it removes further drinking after pubs have closed and the availability of glass bottles which can so easily be used as weapons.

Now council officials are to draw up a hit list of Blackburn's most violent ten pubs and try to work with landlords to calm things down.

At the same time a trial scheme is proposed which, it is hoped, will transform the last hour at at an initial six nightspots.

For the final sixty minutes that they are open licensees will serve only soft drinks and water and raucous sounds will be replaced by soothing music and chill-out zones.

The 'cool off' hour could be made mandatory as a condition of licences in the future.

The subtle effect of different types of music in shopping malls, supermarkets, lifts and all kinds of public places is well known - and used by psychologists in an effort to maximise business.

Whether it works in pubs and clubs remains to be seen but the scheme is certainly worth a try.

Wouldn't it be magic if people did end their evenings out by going home in a pleasant mood with smiles on their faces?