A Wiltshire town centre is facing issues with “street drinkers”, say police.

Sergeant Chris Wickham has spoken about issues facing officers tackling street drinkers in Devizes, during a public question and answer session.

Sgt Wickham told residents the town was dealing with “issues”, particularly in the Market Place, and urged residents to report wrongdoing.

He said: “It’s causing us a fair few issues with street drinking in the Market Place.

“We know we’ve got some issues with street drinkers in Devizes, if you’re witnessing problems it adds to our evidence base to deal with specific offenders.

“There are civil orders we can put in place, but we need that evidence base to do that, and that comes from people reporting.”

Last September police and the town council supported a Public Space Protection Order for the area which would ban drinking in public spaces to curb “spontaneous violence incidents.”

Sgt Wickham says this order is still under consultation but would allow police to tackle the issue if implemented.

He added: “It’s a bit of a long process… it will bring back no drinking and enable us to disperse people to get a handle on their behaviour.

“It’s not something that’s Wiltshire Police driven, it’s something we’ve played a part in setting up in conjunction with Devizes Town Council and Wiltshire Council.”