AN ITALIAN city has turned to Oxford to help tackle its burgeoning teenage binge-drinking culture.

Padua in northern Italy, home to an 800-year-old university, has always had a relaxed attitude to alcohol, with families enjoying the region’s wines together at meal times.

But in recent years, more of the city’s teenagers along with its thousands of students have gathered to binge-drink, causing problems for residents and city authorities.

It is a familiar tale for those living in Oxford, where a recent study revealed that one in 10 children, some as young as 11, regularly get drunk, and teenage drinkers have plagued city parks.

Now the two cities want to learn from each other in tackling the issue.

Heart specialist and Padua city councillor Dr Fabio Verlato is responsible for dealing with antisocial behaviour in the Italian city.

He wants to combat the problem by improving after-school clubs for teenagers and was alerted to similar work in Oxford by a colleague working at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Dr Verlato has been discussing the problem with the city council and said: “In Italy we have great wines, but that is for lunch and dinner, not just to drink.

“Now teenagers are starting to meet just to drink, so we have binge-drinking that we did not have before.

“Every weekend we have more teenagers going to hospital. We have a nice big square close to the university where twice a week in excess of 2,000 teenagers get together to drink.

“There are a lot of bars around the square and they don’t check as they are supposed to the age of the boys and girls.”

Dr Verlato wants to launch a campaign in the city to get more children to take up after-school sports or cultural activities.

The city is also planning awareness work in schools and a peer-to-peer education programme.

He said: “Here in Oxford I know there are many activities for teenagers after school and they work quite well to prevent antisocial behaviour, so we thought ‘why don’t we try to meet people here?’”

He said he also wanted to find out about Antisocial Behaviour Orders, which are not used in Italy, and how they work in Oxford.

Dr Verlato, who is on holiday in England, met members of Oxford’s crime and nuisance action team (Canact) and councillor Saj Malik, the city’s executive member for safer communities.

Canact’s Naeem Chudry said the team talked to other authorities in the UK but this was the first time they had discussed problems with European counterparts.

He said: “We want to share practice and see what the similarities are. Given the demographics of Padua, we are likely to face some of same problems.”

Mr Malik said Oxford had a countrywide reputation for tackling antisocial behaviour.

He said: “Our success has been all about partnership. Meeting Fabio, we can learn something and he can take something back from us.”