It’s abundantly clear that the promised Café Society that should have transformed our town and city centres at night-time after the Licensing Act of 2005 hasn’t actually happened.

Instead, a drink-fuelled economy with yobbish behaviour has developed, so the family groups and older citizens who were to have been attracted to join in simply stay away.

Binge drinking has emerged as one of the nation’s social problems. It cannot be a coincidence that this has got worse since 2005.

It’s certainly costing us dear - £13 billion is the estimated annual figure for policing and health care alone.

For too many of the young, that good night out is judged by how plastered you can get. Pre-loading with cut-price supermarket booze helps get things going. And for either sex now, there’s no shame if you fall in the gutter, or pee in public. A recent BBC TV News programme featured nearby Watford, where cameras caught drunken mayhem in the streets. They then moved to Watford Hospital’s A & E Department. On some nights all beds were full with excess drinkers sleeping it off or being rehydrated – tasks once carried out in police cells. Now the change of venue was blocking beds for any genuine cases brought in.

And that could be you or me. Furthermore, there’s been a reaction to the programme from Watford police authorities. Now street patrols look out for those who appear pre-loaded, and they are banned from the town. Where could they go? Here, perhaps. So we should be doubly worried.

Disturbing images of St Albans, still on You Tube since 2007, and with nearly 30,000 hits to date, do the city no favours. The new government’s review is not coming too soon.

There can be no quick fixes for what is one aspect of a centuries-old culture. But any reappraisal should consider a ‘polluter pays’ tax on late-night venues, greater recognition of residents’ concerns, and more powers to shut unruly premises.

Meanwhile, the Society will continue to play its part at Licensing Hearings and participate wholeheartedly in any review of the Act.

Eric Roberts, St Albans Civic Society