BARROW’S drink and drug-fuelled nightlife needs to change to help improve the town’s health, a meeting has heard.

The town continues to have a “wild” reputation after dark, despite young people drinking less and nightclubs shutting, a report found.

Public health officials for Barrow have held talks with landlords, club owners and council officials about “revitalising” the night time economy.

The hope is that more events and entertainment could be rolled out, so that a night out doesn’t have to mean alcohol, a meeting at the town hall heard.

Public health manager Lesley Graham told councillors on Cumbria County Council’s Barrow local committee: “Everyone is well aware that Barrow is one of those towns where people don’t come out until midnight. They are quite often already under the influence of drink or drugs by the time they hit the town.

“Clubs are having to stay open later just to make any kind of profit. I have been working with licensees and with licensing, planning colleagues and the Barrow BID to ask them what their vision is for Barrow.”

She said the talks were looking at opportunities which did not revolve around alcohol so the town centre was more “mixed” at night time.

Licensees were initially “disturbed” by the idea but health officials insisted they were not looking at “closing nightclubs” or being “punitive” against pubs.

“This is a real opportunity to reinvigorate Barrow,” said Mrs Graham. “The challenge is for the town to be more “creative” about what it offers after sundown,” she said.

The meeting was told that Barrow shipyard employed highly skilled and highly paid workers but many did not live in the town.

“We would like to encourage them to spend their hard-earned cash here and contribute to the economy of Barrow,” she said.

More events and entertainments could broaden the appeal of the town centre and help people’s health at the same time, she added.

“It would actually help the wellbeing of Barrow and reduce alcohol consumption,” she said.

Similar to the Green and Blue Flag schemes which were a benchmark for high standards in parks and on beaches, a Purple Flag scheme has been suggested to allow the public to know what a town centre offered by way of “entertaining, diverse, safe and enjoyable” nights out, according to a report by the county council.

Mrs Graham said that Barrow’s drug deaths had reduced after hitting 12 between December 2017 and April 2018.

They had fallen back in-line with the national rate, Mrs Graham said.

“One a month is still one too many, but the spike we experienced a year ago has been helped by the systems put in place to bring it down and work with the town’s vulnerable people,” she said.

Cllr Sol Wielkopolski said the council needed to have “real influence” on people’s lives.

“A lot of it is around personal choice. I choose to exercise every day and I choose to try and eat healthily – and I am not doing very well with either.

“But I wonder how we get that message across to people because it is not just about money,” said the Conservative councillor for Newbarns and Parkside.

Cllr Anne Burns said there were “two sides” to Barrow and the county’s MPs needed to work together better for more public health funding.

Cumbria received just £35 per person, compared to some “wealthier” areas which received more than three times that amount, she pointed out.

Cllr Frank Cassidy, the Labour councillor for Walney South, said the issues were very difficult to solve.

“Conditions are so desperately bad in some areas that the fastest way to a different reality for a lot of people is to use drugs,” he said.