POLICE and landlords have joined forces to crack down on drunken louts and yobbish behaviour in Malmesbury and have agreed to share more information together.

The scheme, called Malmesbury Pubwatch, uses a ring-around system to alert the next licensed premises of any potential incident.

The same system will also be used by publicans to report underage drinking and any drugs misuse.

A similar initiative last year was not as successful as had been hoped and the scheme had lapsed.

But Malmesbury police and local licensees say they are determined to work closely again in a bid to stamp out anti-social behaviour.

As a result the pubwatch scheme was re-launched across the area last Thursday.

Ten licensees and a representative from Somerfields supermarket attended the first meeting in the Kings Arms Pub, in High Street.

Licensee Hilary Timms acted as the chairman.

The scheme's relaunch will mean all the premises licensed to sell alcohol in the town will be taking part.

Licensees will decide who is banned from premises and they will pass this on to the police, as well as the next alcohol outlet in the chain.

PC Emma Cooper, who is co-ordinating the scheme for Malmesbury Police, said the biggest success so far was enlisting every licensee.

She said: "The most important thing is the trust between licensees and police which will combat any of the small problems we have here in the town."

She said Malmesbury had few drunken fights and low criminal damage compared to other towns, but this partnership would help to keep things that way.

She said police hope to enforce a drinking exclusion zone in the coming months which has already been successfully introduced in other Wiltshire towns.

Coun Catherine Doody welcomed the scheme.

Shesaid: "I am all for this. People who are in the pub have got to behave themselves. Obviously, we all like a drink but if that goes too far and they end up disturbing others, then they should be evicted.

"I think they should be asked to leave and if that does not work they should be shown the door."

The next Malmesbury Pubwatch meeting will be in the Duke of York at the beginning of December.

Mrs Timms said the scheme will keep all the pubs better informed around the town.

"I think there is a slight problem of under-age drinking and slight problem of drug abuse in Malmesbury.

"Hopefully, this system of passing information down the line from one licensee to another will help to alleviate it.

"But I would say it is more the 15-18 age group who cause these problems."

Ian Clifford, deputy manager of Somerfields in Malmesbury said the store was aware there is a problem with under-age drinking in the town.

He said: "We are participating in the pubwatch scheme because if we work together we hope to minimise the problem.

"These days it is very difficult to identify the ages of young people.

"Our policy is that anyone buying alcohol who we suspect is under 21 has to show identification."

Coun Ian Oliver said he did not think the town had a greater under-age drinking problem in proportion to other towns in Wiltshire.

He said: "My gut reaction is that this pubwatch scheme is a good idea.

"I think that anything that keeps teenagers out of pubs is a very good thing.

"But at the end of the day under-age drinking and the problems of drug misuse is an issue which has to be tackled by every town."