Breweries say they train landlords to prevent drink-related trouble

Between 2003 to 2004 there were 3,500 incidents of violence recorded in both counties. This included about 1,000 happening in Cornwall alone.

It puts the counties just behind the West Midlands and Lancashire.

Pub bosses said they had not noticed an increase in violence and did all they could to make premises safe. Police said they had strategies for incidents.

Problem recognition

The figures have come as a shock to people in the trade.

Kim Barker, landlady of the William Cookworthy pub in St Austell, she says if a pub is well run, there should not be problems with violence.

She said: "If someone is starting to get drunk, and you see that, you just politely refuse to serve them. If you speak correctly, nine times out of then they take that well and off they go."

Vicky Crossingham, recruitment and training director at the St Austell Brewery, which runs a 157 pubs in Devon and Cornwall, said: "It's not been our experience in any of our tenancies or managed house that we've noticed violence on the increase.

"Our publicans are trained to deal with any sort of conflict and hopefully nip it in the bud."

She argued that despite recent reports saying binge-drinking being on the increase, it was not happening in pubs.

She said: "People don't binge drink at pubs, they binge drink at home and come out to top it up before going on elsewhere."

Devon and Cornwall Police said in a statement: "We recognise the potential problems that any pub may encounter and we do have certain strategies in place such as having dedicated alcohol-related crime reduction officers who try to reduce crime near licensed premises.

"We also use high profile campaigns such as the recent force wide swoop on door staff."