Residents want drink age limit raised to 21

More than half of Dudley's residents want the drinking age raised to 21, a survey has revealed.

A study by Dudley PCT found 54 per cent were in favour of lifting the threshold from the current age of 18.

And seven out of ten people questioned want drink-driving laws to be changed, with the legal blood alcohol limit slashed from 80mg to 50mg.

However despite the apparently responsible attitude to drink among those surveyed, 72 per cent said they believed the borough "had a drink problem".

Dr Jammi Rao, deputy director of public health for NHS West Midlands, said people's responses showed they were "concerned" about alcohol misuse and the health problems associated with abuse.

But Councillor Malcolm Davis, an outspoken commentator on under-age drinking, said raising the drinking age and reducing the legal drink-drive level were misguided measures which would not ease drink-related issues.

On the drinking age plan, he said: "I don't think raising the drinking age from 18 to 21 is the answer. It will not make a scrap of difference to the real problem.

"The main issue is kids drinking who are under the current limit rather than 18-year-olds not being responsible enough to drink. I would prefer to see a real clampdown on under-age drinking."

And he added reducing the drink-driving limit would fail to change attitudes.

"At the moment it is ambiguous – people are being told that if they have had a drink they have a chance of being right and a chance of being wrong. Reducing the legal blood alcohol level would not change that," he said.

"If somebody says you can't drink and drive and if you do, you will get done, that is a far clearer and fairer system."

People in Dudley were responding to an on-line survey at www.bigdrink debate.co.uk.