ACCORDING to data gathered between 2008 and 2013, people living in Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys are a third more likely to be taken to hospital for alcohol-related harm.

On a scale where 100 is used as the average across the UK, the Blackbird Leys ward scored 123.5 and Northfield Brook, which includes Greater Leys, scored 131.7.

To combat the problem, it has been agreed that Oxford City Council will point residents towards resources including the Young People’s Substance Misuse Service, the drugs and alcohol Harm Minimisation Service and the Oxfordshire Residential Detox Project, based at Howard House in Iffley Road.

Earlier this year a new abstinence-based drug and alcohol rehab clinic called MYOX4 opened in Knights Road, Blackbird Leys.

Facilitator Dave Eaton, 50, who formerly struggled with alcohol addiction himself, said: “Before we came here there was no help available at all.

“We are making an impact and starting to scratch the surface but it’s going to take time.

“It doesn’t surprise me that people end up in hospital for alcohol more than anywhere else. It’s a big problem here. It’s not just the people you see sitting on benches – it’s the elderly, who drink to dangerous levels and don’t even realise. They can finish up in hospital with liver and kidney disease.

“I have been in recovery since 2011; my history was drinking from a very young age and eventually it took me to the streets. I started at 11 or 12 on cider in the park and finished up homeless. Lots of people here are talking to us about the problems with underage drinking; we need to go into schools and get the message through early.

“It’s about educating people in the pubs and off-licences who are serving people with alcoholism about looking for signs of abuse. Maybe they can point them onto us. But it’s their customers; they probably don’t want them to stop drinking.”