Near top of Scotland’s worst areas

low number of off-licences and pubs compared to the Scottish average.

Places with a high number of alcohol outlets generally correlate with t he h i g h e s t i n c i d e n c e s o f c r i me a n d hospitalisations due to drinking.

The Murray, Greenhills, East Mains and West Mains had 1246 al coholrelated crimes per 10,000 population, while 2000 people were hospitalised due to alcohol abuse.

Despite there being a low density of licensed premises in Greenhills – two outlets in under a one-mile radius – 584 locals were admitted to hospital because of drink.

And there were 285 alcohol-fuelled crimes in Greenhills per 10,000 people.

I n Av o n d a l e , S t r a t h a v e n S o u t h had the most hospital admissions for alcohol abuse and drink-related crime at 395 and 162 per 10,000 population respectively.

Al c o hol Fo c us S c o t l a nd a nd t he Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health (CRESH) carried out in-depth research and collated figures for 2016 for the whole of Scotland.

T h e y t e a me d u p t o i n v e s t i g a t e whether alcohol-related health harm and crime rates across Scotland were linked to the local availability of alcohol outlets.

Their f i ndings f or S outh Lanarkshire were t hat alcohol-related deaths in neighbourhoods with the most off-sales outlets were 80 per cent higher than those with the least.

Alcohol-related hospitalisation rates in the communities with most alcohol outl et s were double t hose i n neighbourhoods with the least.

Crime rates in the neighbourhoods with most places selling alcohol were 3.3 times higher than in neighbourhoods with the least. Health experts and politicians argue that the health and crime rates justify the introduction of minimum unit pricing earlier this month. The Scottish Government banned supermarkets and off-licences from selling alcohol to people at cutprice deals in a bid to curb alcoholism and save lives. Mr P u r d i e a d d e d : “A major focus of all this work i s, of course, t o promote prevention to help reduce the level of alcohol-related harm at a community level, as well as helping those who need assistance with alcohol and substance misuse issues to allow them to recover and live productive lives.”