POLICE in Durham hope to revive an early hours bus service for weekend drinkers.

The Durham Night Bus ran from July to January, taking pub and clubgoers from the city centre to five destinations, between midnight and 2.15am, on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

The service ended when funding ran out - the new Walkabout Australian theme bar in North Road paid £40,000 towards it - and operator Go North-East said not enough passengers used the service to make it viable.

The buses took people, who had bought tickets in advance, to the suburbs of the city and outlying villages, and to Chester-le-Street. The service was seen as playing an important role in reducing assaults and disorder in taxi queues, a trouble flashpoint.

Chief Insp Dave Hogg told the North Durham Licensing Committee that the scheme was 'very, very successful' and that negotiations were ongoing to find alternative funding.

He also told the magistrates that the city's rising Urilift toilet - also paid for by Walkabout - was successful and a second one would be installed shortly.

He said the city was getting more 'high class' nightspots.

He also added that 45 people had been given life bans from city pubs by the Pubwatch scheme, which was helping to reduce violence. Chief Insp Hogg, who was giving his annual report, said anti-social behaviour caused by under-18s drinking in the street was a problem across North Durham, particularly in the Easington area.

Under-age youngsters buying drink from off-licences was a problem while other sources of alcohol for them were over-18s buying it for them and bootleg drink from abroad that was sold on.

Police were tackling the problem with a number of measures including test purchase schemes, which could cost off-licensees their licences.

He also said their had been a marked fall in assaults in licensed premises in Consett while in Chester-le-Street they had risen by 23 per cent and disorder had increased.