THERE is no easy way to say this, but the evidence is undeniable: Britain has a drink problem.

Alcohol consumption has soared in the past 50 years. Britons are now consuming 90 per cent more alcohol than they did in 1960. Binge-drinking is a major health concern.

Booze-related hospital admissions cost the NHS more than £2.7bn every year, but the human cost is even higher.

According to the Royal College of Physicians, excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for more than 15,000 premature deaths annually.

Last year, many publicans backed calls for minimum unit pricing of alcohol.

The trade is a vocal critic of the pricing policies operated by supermarkets, which sell value brands of beer for less than a bottle of fizzy water.

Publicans have successfully seized the morale high ground in the bingedrinking argument by excoriating supermarkets for their irresponsible special offers.

But what should we make of a drinking establishment that calls itself a PoundPub and promises patrons “more round for your pound”?

No doubt the name sounded like a good idea at the time, but a chain of PoundPubs on every high street will surely undermine the argument that pubs are the right venue for responsible drinking.

And if the PoundPub gimmick proves effective, how long before someone launches a 99p Pub? A price war would be neither sensible nor responsible.

Having spent £38m on a new town centre, councillors in Stockton are right to be concerned that a Pound- Pub will send