As the Christmas season gets under way, many of us will perhaps be enjoying a night out or two with friends or work colleagues, or perhaps having a festive tipple at home over the break.

However, a sobering message comes from a new Office of National Statistics report that says Yorkshire is close to the top of an unwelcome league table showing which areas are home to people who are drinking too much.

No-one wants to be a party pooper at this time of year but the message from this survey is a serious one, and it is a problem which affects a broad range of people.

Those who do not have much disposable income are saving up their money and drinking to dangerous levels in periodic binges, while many workers and professional people have sustained drinking levels which put them in the danger zone for a variety of illnesses.

Drinking to excess is causing high levels of liver disease, brain damage and cancers in the Bradford district and last year alone 138 people died from alcohol-related causes.

The cost of treating people for drink-related illnesses or injuries in the district last year was £35 million.

As with all things, the key to drinking safely is moderation. That might not be a message that is welcome during the party season, but it is food for thought, and perhaps those who feel they might well be drinking too much might decide it’s appropriate to cut down in the New Year and try to maintain those traditional but often quickly-abandoned resolutions to be healthier after the Christmas celebrations.