NEW Year partygoers have been warned - beware of the drinks!
Drink experts have warned that drinks offered at house parties are often three times the size of pub measures on average.
And it adds to the problems for drivers, who should watch the size of the drinks poured by hosts at house parties this New Year.
Tony Payne, Brighouse-based chief executive of the Licensed Victuallers' Association, said drinkers should be cautious of the measures supplied by friends and relatives during the festive season.
"The worry is people drinking at home. People tend to pour triple measures at a house party. In a pub it is controlled. You know what you are drinking.
"But if you go to somebody's house you do not know what you are getting.
"You could be over the drink-drive limit without realising it."
Mr Payne recommended that people ask their host what they have been poured.
And he warned that glasses of wine in restaurants and pubs varied in their size and strength.
"Wine can be 8% to 14% vol.
"White wine is usually weaker but not always.
"I had a glass with a meal last night and it was 13.5%"
The size of wine glasses also varied between 25ml and 35ml.
He said that in restaurants when driving he bought a bottle of wine, had a 25ml glass, put a cork in the bottle and finished the rest at home.
Meanwhile, a study of the nation's pubs has revealed the highest density of watering holes to residents is in the City of London, where there is one per 30 people.
Kirklees has 398 pubs - an average of one pub for 977 people.
Mr Payne said: "There are places where they can be under-pubbed or over-pubbed.
"Some rural areas lose everything - their post office, shops and pubs.
"In rural areas the pubs close because residents don't use them.
"It's like a marriage that breaks up - it's only when it's gone that people appreciate what they had."
UpMy Street.com, which conducted the survey, found that 30% of the people surveyed planned more than four visits to a pub Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.
