A TEACHER who took British children all over the world on adventure holidays now only works with Russian youngsters because of health and safety red tape in the UK.

Tony Arthur says bureaucracy in the UK has become so complicated that he travels 3,000 miles so he can continue taking youngsters on challenging expeditions.

Mr Arthur, says many former colleagues no longer risk taking children abroad but, rather than protecting them, health and safety rules are leaving them at greater risk of joy-riding, drugs and binge-drinking.

While teaching in the UK, the 65-year-old, who lives in Hallgarth Street, Durham, led expeditions to the Andes, the jungles of Malaysia and the Sahara Desert.

He said: "I managed to do all this without one serious accident. These days, I wouldn't be allowed to lead a party of 11-year-olds along a path in Derbyshire."

For the past eight years, he has spent the winter in Novokuznetsk, in Siberia, teaching English.

He said: "Russia is always regarded as a bureaucratic country, but it's nowhere near as bad as Britain is now. While we worry so much about taking kids out into the wilds, they're left on the streets.

"I see binge-drinking and appalling behaviour in Durham and Newcastle. I see indiscipline, with kids charging around in feral packs."

Mr Arthur taught in Uganda, Ayr and Norfolk before taking redundancy in 1998.

He said: "I don't think you'll ever solve the problem of juvenile delinquency completely, but you can make a big difference.

"I took one epileptic boy with a group to Siberia in 1991. We went up a mountain and then spent four days rafting down a river.

"He ended up climbing mountains and he's since become the first British person to ascend a volcano in North Kamchatka, in 2002. Surely it's not beyond the capacity of human reason to devise a legal system to keep this blame-and-claim business in check, while still making sure children are safe."

Mr Arthur's next trip will be to Malaysia, with a group of Russian children.

He said: "I'll be 66, but I'm still fit. I'm not ready for the old people's home yet."