Spalding police are working to tackle street drinking and its roots causes

Street drinking in Spalding town centre is a regular concern raised by shoppers - but police are working with partners to look at ways to sort out the problem and its root causes.

A group of people who congregate daily in the town centre are often a source of annoyance for many people but unless they have committed a criminal offence there is little action authorities can take.

However, South Holland’s Insp Police Matt Dickinson says his team are looking at what can be done but added that a big challenge is the legislation they work with.

Insp Dickinson also stressed that they had to be mindful that some of these people are vulnerable due to their additions.

He said: “We can arrest someone but what my team is looking at, in partnership with the council and other authorities, is to look at what we are going to do when these people are released to make they sure they don’t go back to the lifestyle and behaviours.

“We have had a meeting with probation and identified five or six people that are causing the community the most nuisance. We are looking at each individual person. If probation identify people that are not compliant with court orders then we will hold them to account.

“But there are additional vulnerabilities around drink and drunk taking. Might be people are looking at short sentence.”

Spalding is covered by a Public Spaces Protection Order which is not a drinking ban but makes it an offence if a drinker does not comply with an officer’s request to stop drinking.

Failing to comply with the order result in maximum fine of £1,000 or even prosecution.

This order is the responsibility of South Holland District Council but police do support the authority in enforcement.

Insp Dickinson and the team have launched a crackdown on this issue and have made a number of referrals to the district council for order breaches.

He said: “We have upped everything in the last couple of weeks. We have upped patrols considerably.”

The team has been working with a number of other groups including community mental health teams to try to tackle issues in the town centre during a day of action.

Officers had seized a vessel of alcohol and arrested a ‘prolific’ offender minutes after they had stolen from a town centre shop.