BLACKPOOL police are worried about bars and nightclubs in the town offering all-inclusive tickets and other drink deals which lead to drunkenness and violence.

The Citizen's Nikki Masters went to an all-inclusive night at the Palace nighclub on the Prom to find out if the police fears were well founded.

This is her warts-and-all report of a Blackpool night out...

I VISITED The Palace nightclub's Friday "all-inclusive" night (March 8) to see for myself what happens -- where for a set fee you gain entrance to the club and can enjoy unlimited free drinks all night.

The largely younger crowd in the club certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves. The atmosphere was happy and friendly with customers drinking, larking around, dancing and singing.

On the busy dance floor clubbers were enjoying up-to-date dance tracks under colourful lighting. In the darker areas beside the dance floor clubbers spouted equally colourful language while they relaxed, chatted and danced.

We took a voucher we were given at the door to one of the brightly lit bars for our first free drink. To get more rounds throughout the night we had to take back our empties in exchange.

The bars were quite busy but we didn't see anyone ordering massive rounds or guzzling drink after drink.

We did soon see our first casualty, though. After a short walk along the sticky carpets we came across a man who was slumped, eyes closed, over a table on which stood half a dozen empties. At his side, another man was desperately trying to get the attention of a nearby party.

He was gone when I returned from the loo. I'd made sure it was a quick visit -- the floor of the cubicles was swimming with water, toilet paper and other rubbish, and one cubicle looked like it had traces of vomit down one wall.

When I commented on the state of the toilets a woman near the wash basins had piped up: "Well what do you expect for a tenner?"

The rest of our night was trouble free, apart from a flying bottle from a nearby argument which missed my non-plussed husband by inches. A broad-shouldered security guard quickly swooped and frogmarched a young man out of the nearest exit.

The club closed at 2am. We saw crowds of clubbers, some with bottles, spilling onto the pedestrianised area at the bottom of the Palace steps -- near the back of Coral Island -- and then just hanging around.

At this time there was quite a crowd building, fed by The Palace and probably also from nearby venues including Heaven and Hell, Jellies, The Boom Boom Room and Linekers Bar who also offer drinks promotions.

Some people flagged down taxis or wandered away into the town centre and towards Albert Road and Central Drive.

But a crowd was just hanging about, many people clearly drunk and staggering round. I saw two women falling over and then another woman who seemed to be with them kicking them to try to get them up again.

Then at around 2.15am there was some shouting and two young men started throwing punches near the back of Coral Island. It was the first of several skirmishes and running brawls between clubbers in the Adelaide Street and Bank Hey Street area.

Police in high-visibility jackets, patrol cars and a van moved in. One officer told me that many bottles had been confiscated but that this was actually "quiet for a Friday night", his eyes on the crowd the whole time we talked.

Then suddenly he was off, running to help colleagues as trouble broke out on Bank Hey Street.

One man, who had been trying to distract the officer while his friend was trying to steal the policeman's hat, asked me if I worked for the police and called them "a***holes".

I stood around and watched the chaotic crowd until around 2.30am, but as we left there were still at least 150 people still hanging about, shouting to each other and running about.

Later I learned there was only one arrest -- at around 2.30am a woman was arrested on Bank Hey Street for being drunk and disorderly -- but that the police had been forced to step in and break up several fights and arguments.

"The number of people that were arrested doesn't reflect the number of incidents you have to get involved in and split up. The fact that we need to be there at all indicates there is a problem," commented Blackpool Police's licensing sergeant Tony Bushell.

All-inclusive nights in general are attracting criticism from the police. Town centre violence officer DC Ian Mather said: "We would ask the licensees to seriously consider what they are doing and what they are encouraging in the town centre.

"We are finding that people who don't normally drink are saying to themselves, 'I've paid for it so I'm going to have the drinks'." He added that door staff are trained not to let people leave the club with drinks, but if people are found drinking in the street, bottles or glasses can be confiscated and the bearers could be arrested.

"The message we want to get across is that if we can prove that premises with this binge drinking are definitely linked to the violence we will prosecute."

At the time of going to press The Palace had not responded to requests for a statement.