WESTBURY Town Council is to look at the ramifications of turning Westbury Market Place into an alcohol-free zone.
Mayor of Westbury, cllr Sue Ezra, said that something needed to be done to curb what she and fellow councillors saw as an increasing problem with abusive behaviour from drunk people congregating in the square.
Cllr Ezra said, “We would like an exclusion zone but what we don’t want to do is kill the Market Place, so we need to carefully look into it. You can’t modify the Market Place, put tables and chairs out and then create an exclusion zone, so we do have to handle this very carefully.
“We need to do something about it because it is getting out of hand. We’ve got a group of youngsters who are causing a lot of trouble in town.”
The matter will be discussed at the next full meeting of the town council in September.
PC Nick Holt said that he and his team had been working closely with Wiltshire Council’s antisocial behaviour strategy panel for the last 12 months to deal with street drinking.
He said, “The problem of street drinking is complex and and the ASB panel is working towards a robust strategy to deal with the issue.”
