A major cash injection will be used to tackle Kent's binge drinking problem.

The Kent Drug and Alcohol Action Team has been given £300,000 from the East and West Kent Primary Care Trusts.

The funding was announced this week as the Government’s new parental guidelines were unveiled on how to deal with teenage drinking.

Measures outlined in the national Youth Alcohol Action Plan include prosecuting parents who allow their children to drink in public and a recommendation to change the age limit at which parents should give children alcohol.

Currently the law states parents can give children aged over five alcohol in a private setting.

Now the Government is recommending the age limit be increased to 12 and over in the hope of encouraging a more moderate continental culture rather than a binge-drinking one.

Mother-of-three Catherine Butters from Sittingbourne believes it would be a good idea.

She said: “I totally agree with it. I think the limit should be up to 16 - that is when they are adult enough to know what they are doing. As parents you are totally responsible for children under 16. I would never have let my children drink alcohol. I never did as a child and it was something I passed onto them.”

The £300,000 from the East and West Kent PCTs to KDAAT will build on Kent County Council’s existing campaign to educate young people about the dangers of alcohol and drugs misuse.