PEOPLE have been urged to report incidents of drunken behaviour to the police and the council to back a bid to get public drinking banned in Colne town centre.

Complaint forms will be available from Colne Town Hall from Monday so that people can officially log loutish and aggressive behaviour. The police have also promised to log any complaints.

Councillors want to compile a dossier of bad behaviour to back an application to the Home Office for a by-law banning public drinking in designated areas of the town.

They are pressing ahead with the move although the council's senior solicitor Philip Mousdale doubts whether permission will be granted.

The police feel they already have sufficient powers to deal with any problems and the Home Office is unlikely to grant the by-law without police support.

A working group of councillors, the police and representatives from the town's Community Safety Partnership will be set up to push consultations about the move ahead. Coun Alan Davies said: "Clearly this is something that has been going on in this town for several years.

"There's a great number of people who use Colne town centre but there are parts of the centre they will not go into, they turn around and walk away from, because they know where particular groups of people hang around.

"The problem is not with any individual, it's with groups of people who are harassing people in the centre and going into shops in a state of inebriation and making nuisances of themselves. Pursuing this by-law is the only way we can have any hope of solving this problem."

Councillors suggested the by-law could be formed so that it excluded the town's annual rhythm and blues music festival so "innocent" drinkers were not breaking the law.

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