So much so that a ground-breaking alcohol-abuse clinic has been set up in the town.

Nick Tegerdine, executive director of the Alcohol Problems Advisory Service (APAS), made the claims after plans were announced to open the clinic at the town's health centre.

For the first time, Nottinghamshire Community Health (NCH) are providing services not only to treat drink-related health problems but also aimed at preventing them.

Irresponsible drinking is also said to be the catalyst for many anti-social behaviour problems in the town.

Mr Tegerdine said: "There is little doubt that Hucknall has a huge drink-problem. After the loss of its traditional industries, indications of social deprivation in the town are high.

"In addition, booze is now cheaper than bottled water. An incredible amount of strong, cheap alcohol is now in circulation and it is being drunk by teenagers as young as 14.

"You only have to walk through Hucknall town centre on a Friday or Saturday night to realise the extent of the problem."

The Hucknall clinic, at the Curtis Street centre, is one of 20 being run across the county, staffed by five alcohol health workers.

The initiative follows a report to Nottinghamshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), claiming that drink is now causing about 280 deaths a year in the county.

Other statistics in the report show that the cost to the county's economy from alcohol-related absenteeism is £22.8 million annually, with 213,000 working days lost.

Mr Tegerdine claimed Nottinghamshire's figures were actually worse than the national average.

And he said it was a "joke" and a "disgrace" that NCH had only just gone for an early-intervention policy.

"We tried satellite clinics in Hucknall ten years ago and it is great that they have adopted our model," he said.

"But it has now gone beyond the stage of brief advice sessions in doctors' surgeries. People become seriously ill and damaged because of drink."

Hucknall police chief, Insp Dean Brown, said he did not have any statistics on drink-related crime in Hucknall.

"But we have to deal with alcohol-related assaults both in public and in terms of domestic violence," he pointed out.

"An increase in drinking by children under 18 is particularly worrying."