Flyers promoting a Glasgow pub crawl with "drinks from one pound" have been ordered off information stands amid concern about binge drinking.

The leaflets which advertise a trip around five of the city's "cheapest" bars were displayed in Glasgow City Council racks despite its stance against the promotion of low-cost drinking.

Public health experts have expressed concern about the flyers which direct visitors to a website advertising a "weekender bender".

Professor Gerard Hastings, director of the Institute for Social Marketing run by the University of Stirling and the Open University, said: "The problem with this sort of promotion is it is reinforcing this notion that the only way to have a good time is to drink and drink to excess.

"The bigger picture here is public money is going into discouraging drinking and at the same time it is being undermined and therefore wasted because we are allowing the contrary message to be promoted."

Scotland's drinking culture has shot to the top of the agenda amid a series of alarming statistics about its toll on the nation's health.

This February a report revealed Scots are drinking themselves to death at twice the rate of people elsewhere in the UK. The mortality rate from cirrhosis of the liver north of the border increased 143% among men in a decade, 45 Scots are dying because of alcohol every week and at least 10% of admissions to A&E are drink-related.

Glasgow licensing board has described itself as setting an example after introducing a ban on happy hours and the "promotional sale of low cost alcohol in licensed premises" which can lead to binge drinking.

Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said he was concerned the crawl was being advertised given that the board's policy clearly ruled out irresponsible drinks promotions like two for one.

He added that it was particularly worrying that the leaflets were displayed at information points in city museums, saying: "This is surely not the image that Glasgow wants to project to visitors."

However, James Moore, who set up Glasgow's Best Bar Crawl - the company behind the promotion - said the guided crawls were "entirely responsible".

"Everyone is informed at the start of the night how it works," he said. "No-one under 18 is admitted, we are very strict about that. They have got bouncers at every venue we go to.

"Someone could go to a pub at 8pm and get legless all night, where as they (people on the crawl) are getting looked at every half hour or 45 minutes. Obviously they are going to enjoy themselves, but they are not going to get drunk to the point where they are not allowed admission to a premises.

"The fact it is a pub crawl where they are moving around gives them less time to drink."

Mr Moore, an undergraduate student due to start teacher training later this year, said he launched the guided crawls after encountering similar tours travelling in Europe.

He said they were targeted at visitors to Glasgow, offering travellers a chance to meet each other.

"We do not aim at Glaswegian customers, we aim at European travellers who have a totally different drinking culture," he said.

E-mailing the Glasgow bar crawl website generates an automatic reply saying "we are currently out having a blast" and "once we've sobered up someone will be in touch", but Mr Moore said this was a joke.

Professor Phil Hanlon, public health expert at Glasgow University, said the big drivers behind the growth in alcohol abuse were prices coming down, drink becoming more readily available and the drinking culture.

He added: "Should the local authority help to promote something that is so explicitly a bar-crawl-related activity? I think it is unwise."

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We have instructed the company who supply and fill the leaflet stands to remove the leaflets in question."