OVER one hundred children under the age of 18 from Hillingdon have been admitted to hospital for alcohol-related illnesses in the last three years.

These are the findings of an investigation by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) into the problems of under-age drinking.

The outer London boroughs were found to have the most cases, with Hillingdon's 101 putting it in fourth place behind leaders Bromley (126).

However, it would have only taken four more cases to push the borough ahead of Barnet (103) and Bexley (104) and thus claim the dubious honour of being second worst in London.

To put the worrying statistic in perspective the neighbouring borough of Harrow had only 25 cases over the three years from 2004-2007.

At the same time the education watchdog Ofsted has released the results of a survey called Tell Us which quizzed 11-14 year olds about their experiences with alcohol.

In Hillingdon only 37 per cent of children said they had never touched alcohol with 12 per cent admitting they had been drunk at least once or twice in their lives.

Councillor David Simmonds, cabinet member for education and children's services, had not had time to study the survey results but said the findings were of concern to him.

He said: "We do have a strategy in place in Hillingdon to deal with young people and alcohol abuse. Also there are joint operations with the police to tackle those who sell alcohol illegally to under age people.

"However, this is a pointer which shows there is much more to be done to tackle the problem. I am surprised by the figures - especially to hear that Harrow, which is similar to ourselves, is so much lower.

"Our main thrust is aimed at raising awareness among young people of the risks of binge drinking through campaigns at schools and youth clubs. However, there remains a hard core of families where alcohol abuse is prevalent and that needs to be tackled."