Sainsbury's Tom MahonSUPERMARKETS in Devizes are to ban anyone under 21 from buying alcohol in their stores after 3pm on Friday and Saturday as part of a campaign to cut under-age drinking.

Bill Baldwin, manager of Sainsbury's in Devizes, confirmed that a ban on under-21s buying alcohol will come into effect tomorrow and it is understood Tesco in Maryport Street is following suit.

Safeway manager Sandy Whitton said the Devizes store will also impose the Friday and Saturday ban.

He said: "Our duty manager and security officers are always on the lookout for possible abuses and they are within their rights to refuse to sell alcohol to anyone."

The One Stop shops in the Market Place and Eastleigh Road are also joining in the ban .

But One Stop's area manager Debbie Richardson said the ban would have to be in force at all retail outlets to be effective. "Unless it is 100 per cent enforced, it will not have the desired effect," she said.

Driving licences, passports or photo ID badges from places of work are among the proof of identity that store staff are being told to accept.

The ban is being introduced following a meeting on Monday of the town's Pubwatch, which has now been widened to include off-licences and supermarkets as well as pubs.

Sgt Andy Peach said 18 and 19-year-olds were buying large quantities of drink from off-licences and selling it to children as young as 11.

He said: "I have been contacted by one mum who was called to a hospital where her 14-year-old daughter was being treated for alcohol poisoning after being sold drink on The Green.

"On another occasion we came across an 11-year-old boy clutching a cider bottle that was almost as big as he was. They are offering violence to adults and making a nuisance of themselves by swearing and fighting."

Sgt Peach said that anti-social behaviour was almost entirely down to the abuse of alcohol. "On a Friday and Saturday it starts as early as 5.30pm with under-age drinkers and, once they have got tired and gone home, their older brothers and sisters get started."

He said some children are even drinking before they go to school.

Margaret Lamb, the senior youth worker at the Southbroom Centre, said 13 and 14-year-old girls were turning up at the club at 7.30pm on a Friday already the worse for drink."

Sgt Peach recommended that off-licences operate a ban on sales of alcohol to anyone under 21. He said: "We have to take concerted action before it becomes an open sore."

Ray Burt, landlord of The Pelican in the Market Place, said that off-licence purchases are also a problem with adult drinkers. He said: "By the time they get to the pub they've already had a skinful. We never had a problem like this five years ago."